Above: The Town’s report on sidewalk issues identifies priorities for which “poor condition” and ADA non-compliance problems to fix over the next 25 years. (images cropped from report.)
A contractor hired by the Town to conduct Southborough’s “ADA Self-Evaluation” on Town sidewalks came out with its report this year. The draft report is posted to the Public Works website and the public is encouraged to provide feedback.
Like the Town’s evaluation of municipal buildings a few years ago, the report is meant to identify problems the Town needs to fix over time to federal legal standards for accessibility for people with disabilities.
According to the report, to fix 100% of the non-compliance issues within 25 years, “the Town would need to allocate $140k/yr.” And that doesn’t include the cost for adding any new sidewalks to Town that many residents have been pushing for over the years.
The report indicates that Town officials instead propose to tackle only 62% of the “backlog” in the next 25 years, at an estimated $88K per year.
Last night, Town Administrator Mark Purple reported to the Select Board that the Town had posted the draft report to the DPW’s website and would be using social media to promote the opportunity for public comments. DPW Superintendent Bill Cundiff said that the consultants had recommended soliciting community feedback. He told the board he would like to be done with that in two weeks.
On the DPW website, the public is directed to send any related comments to dpwoffice@southboroughma.com.
According to the report, BETA consultants found only 41% of sidewalks to be in “Good” condition, meaning that only 10% or less of of those segments require repair/replacement. Half were “Fair”, with about 50% of the segments requiring repair/replacement.
Yet, the remediation plan only focuses on addressing the 9% of sidewalk segments assessed as “Poor”. That equates to 2.02 miles of sidewalk that need to be 100% replaced due to “physical distresses affecting accessibility”. The proposed budget and schedule would only tackle 0.05 miles per year, leaving 0.75 miles of them still out of compliance at the end of 2048.
That is in addition to ramps that need to be replaced. Although only 11% of ramps are in “Poor Condition”, 96% are non-compliant with ADA standards. (Factors assessed include whether they have properly installed detectable warning panels, the ramp dimensions/slopes, and other factors.)
The report shows that 301 ramps would need to be replaced to be fully compliant. But the schedule and budget only target replacement of 8 ramps per year, a total of 188 in 25 years.
The schedule tables list that the 0.05 mi of sidewalks each year as “Reconstructed/Added New”. However, the table also shows the “backlog” of poor condition sidewalks shrinking by that same amount each year. So it appears that it doesn’t actually cover any new sidewalk additions in areas where they don’t currently exist.
The report doesn’t identify which sidwalk repairs should be tackled in which order. But it does give a tiered priority list for sidewalks that presumably have higher community importance based on their proximity to schools, business districts, and municipal services.
Those priorities may not dictate what jobs are done more quickly. The report indicates the Town may maximize savings/efficiencies by repairing sidewalks at the same time that roads are being repaired/reconstructed.
The assessment of road conditions and prioritization of those repairs is another project the Town has been working on. At the Select Board meeting last night, member Sam Stives said this report provides more data to include in the database they are building to help prioritize road projects.
To read the assessment and transition plan report (Volume 1), click here. For the appendices (Volume 2), including details on individual streets, click here.
This article is from December 4 and says, “Last night, Town Administrator Mark Purple reported to the Select Board that the Town had posted the draft report to the DPW’s website and would be using social media to promote the opportunity for public comments. DPW Superintendent Bill Cundiff said that the consultants had recommended soliciting community feedback. He told the board he would like to be done with that in two weeks.”
I think I am somewhat informed about issues in the town, but knew nothing of this until today (I must have missed the original post). I have not seen anything in social media, nor from the town administrator’s office regarding this. Am I missing something? How do they expect to have community feedback if the community is not informed?
Also, we should keep in mind that this is based on the current condition of sidewalks, but covers 25 years to fix the issues. What happens to the condition of those sidewalks over the course of the 25 years (i.e, when will the sidewalks we fix in 2025 require more fixes/maintenance?).
A typical approach here is to look at the sidewalks and ramps that are scored as ‘Poor’ or ‘Very Poor’ first. The rest, frankly, have to wait until they reach that status. Next is looking at any one of them that have been named in/identified in an ADA non-compliant complaint. This is key. An action plan to address needs to be identified ASAP (not necessarily *fix*, but just *identified*). Next is looking at the volume of pedestrians they serve. Higher volume = broader utility/benefit. With these criteria, it is then fairly easy to create , for example, a sortable table via these selections. BETA’s data is likely an MS Access output that can be converted to MS Excel and do just this. I’m happy the DPW is seeking input and making this a transparent process. Absent any super-specific public feedback, this is the way to go.
Just to be clear, they aren’t looking to get feedback through the blog. I welcome the public dialogue. But to have your comments considered by the Town, be sure to also email them to dpwoffice@southboroughma.com
Alan Belniak posted a reply that is somehow not showing up. It stated:
Thanks, Beth. I was more outlining the process as I’ve seen this played out, not necessarily giving feedback. I appreciate the DPW seeking feedback, but I’m hard-pressed to see what they can do with it. We have lots to fix and not a lot of money. The areas to focus on are (a) where have complaints already been made [lawsuit territory]; (b) where are the locations in the absolute worst condition; and (c) of those, which serve the greatest number of people/will w get the most utility from? Since we have a way to look at that data, to me the ‘selection’ is complete (again, since we don’t have enough money to address them all).