Better Roads Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/393925
RoadScience by Tom Kuennen, Contributing Editor 6 October 2014 Better Roads P avement preservation stakeholders in the United States are concerned that a reinterpretation of the Americans with Disabilities Act last year by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Department of Trans- portation (DOT) will lead to disruption of low-cost pave- ment preservation programs in this country. The technical advisory requires that curb ramps and other upgrades be mandated for a variety of thin pavement pres- ervation surface treatments that heretofore had been defi ned as maintenance, and therefore did not require upgrades until alterations were made to the road. This unfunded mandate could set the pavement preserva- tion mantra of "the right treatment to the right road at the right time" on its head, with cost pressures resulting in the wrong treatment to the wrong road at the wrong time, or no treatment at all if the ADA curb ramp installation costs are too high. But at the same time it could lead to a reassessment of an agency's compliance with the ADA as the agency inventories which intersections need remediation, and which don't, re- gardless of the status of its pavement preservation program. Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) requires that state and local governments make sure that persons with disabilities have access to the pedestrian routes in the public right-of-way. An important part of this require- ment is the obligation that, whenever streets, roadways or New interpretation of ADA Requirements gives agencies opportunity to reassess the Compliance to Accessibility Law. ADA Angst Photo courtesy of Tom Kuennen Older and newer: This older-style curb ramp contrasts with a late model in foreground