Since there are already a few ADA threads, I figured I would add another.
I live in a neighborhood that was built in the 1950s. The lots and houses are all fairly small. The sidewalks run right along the road (no grass between them). Each house has a small garage or car port at the front of the house. The driveways stretch from the fronts of the houses to the sidewalks and then the street.
When orignally built, the driveways did not have cuts in them. When parking cars, the driver had to clear the curb and proceed to the garage. Most of the neighbors plopped a bit of concrete or blacktop at the curb to provide a ramp. It worked but caused wierd water diversion in heavy rain. In the past decade, when the sidewalks needed repair, the city put in cuts to provide a ramp to the driveways.
The sidewalk on my block was fixed a few weeks ago. No cuts. No ramps. I called the city engineer in charge of the repairs. He explained that starting this year, there could be no ramps into the sidewalks because the sidewalk had to be level for the new ADA regulations. It wouldn’t be a problem if the sidewalk was further back on the property. If it was a few feet back, there could be a driveway cut and a level sidewalk.
There are ramps on some corners on some blocks. In order to get the ramp and the level sidewalk, the new corners take up about an extra 30 sq ft of the (former) lawn. Not sure what is going to be done when that is not practical.
From what I can see:
Level sidewalks are better for people in wheelchairs.
More cut ramps would be better for people in wheelchairs.
The cuts for driveways are nice for the people living in the houses.
Odds are there are a couple things in play here. Firstly the city is trying to leave you as much yard as they can and still comply with ADA regs. The city has a choice of several sets of regs to comply with. From the ADA FAQ
The current ADA design requirements document(PDF) beginning with section 4.3 on page 19 of the document, describes an “accessible route”(the category sidewalks fall into" as requiring a ramp for all height changes over 1/4". I’d guess a cut for a driveway would be over 1/4" in at least one place where it intersected with the sidewalk if the sidewalks were not moved further back into the yards. So they either have to ramp all the cuts for the driveways or not do cuts for the driveways. Kind of sucks, but the alternatives suck too.
Would you be willing to give up a foot or so of your lawn along your frontage? Perhaps if you work with your City Engineer or DPW director, they would be able to widen the sidewalk along the lawn side and give you your ramp.
This might only be accomplished by allowing the town an easement to a strip of land on your front lawn. You wouldn’t be able to build anything in the easement that would interfere with use, but you would still technically own the property.
Another idea would be to replace the curb with a Cape Cod berm. It would stick a little into the street, but it gives a better ramp than a regular granite curb does.
Thanks for the design requirement document. It looks like the new sidewalks are not exactly required. Since none of the houses on the block are accessible, there is no requirement that the access to the building be accessible. The city probably just decided that all work be done as though every building is accessible to prevent potential disputes.
The car’s suspension is holding up for now. In a few years, I’m sure every house on the street will have the blob of blacktop blocking the gutters but providing a ramp. It will be back to normal.
Your home may not be public and accessibilty-required, but the sidewalk is a public facility. I believe, but am not 100 percent sure, that the sidewalk *is *required to be accessible.
As Mithril noted, the sidewalk is a city facility and they are required to make it accessible even if there currently no accessible buildings it runs adjacent to.
You might also look into installing a drainage tube through the center of any ramps you build on the curb. You can embed a section of weatherproof pipe(think fencing supports) in your asphalt where the road meets the curb and keep drainage impact down a bit that way. If you do it first you may set a trend for the neighbors and they will all use pipes so the streets don’t puddle too badly.