Wednesday, May 30, 2018

S. Illinois Streetscape

The city has started work on the S. Illinois Streetscape project. I see a couple of the larger trees along the street have been cut down, I assume in order to make way for the newly redesigned sidewalks coming into place.

Incidentally, I have heard people complaining about the "wall" that now parallels the sidewalk after the street redesign and people's complaints about how difficult it is to step over. From my understanding, the divider was put into place in order to comply with ADA requirements, so that it is harder for people to go off the sidewalk. It also decreases the gradient of the sidewalk as well, reducing the slope on hills. If the city put steps or a break in the divider in order to make it easier for people to get from their cars to the sidewalk, in order to comply with ADA requirements, a ramp would have to be installed as well. Apparently, any new steps put in also have to have complimentary wheelchair accessibility and a ramp suitable for wheelchairs would stretch out some 16 feet.

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