This is why the taxpayers have no trust in government and how they spend our money.
Another problem with the HC ramps-they have destroyed or moved hundreds if not thousands of survey control points in the City of Pittsburgh (and probably many other cities as well).
To elaborate-the city established survey control at many street corners over the years, starting around 1910 or 1920, usually a cast iron box set in the sidewalk with a monument inside.
The handicap ramp program began with good intentions. But, the contractors were not told what to do about monuments. So, they would just rip them out and sometimes put them back wherever. So, there are plenty of places where they are gone, or you open the lid and there is no monument, or, worst of all, a monument that looks good but is actually in a different location.
"The interpretation of the federal rule changed between the time Lincoln's designs were approved in early 2010 and when the curbs and ramps were inspected in late 2010, Esposito said."
That's just wrong.
Common sense out the window.
Approved Should Grandfather The Handicap Curb Ramps
The implication is that a one year construction project can be voided by rule changes on the last day of construction. I do not see the actual difficiencies but looking at the new rules versus the old rules it is surely deminimus. However it appears the Feds should be responsible for 100% of the replacement costs.
Paul in PA
The City of Sacramento cut crosses for swing ties in the corners of street intersections because of some irrational phobia of decent monuments in the centerline intersections.
Now those cut crosses are mostly gone and the only thing left is to split curbs.
ADA standards are a hard standard with no allowance for normal construction tolerances.
I wouldn't tar the entire government because of this one issue, though.
Exactly the same problem here in NYC, where a high percentage of official monumentation has been lost over the last several decades.
And if they do get replaced?....I have actually seen a contractor take out a monument with a back hoe, and later on in the day, replace it with a back hoe.....no measuring involved.
The agency handling the contract work (the city) should be legally required to replace any survey marks destroyed due to the project. Is this not the case where you work?
JRL
Yep. We definitely need more power, regulation, and money transferred to Washington, D.C.
I do however disagree with who should pay for this. Neither the federal gov't, nor the state, nor the local gov't should have to pay for any of this. The bureaucrats who changed the regulations without implementing a "common sense" clause for recent and current construction should have to pay for every penny of the "upgrades" out of their own pocket. Maybe then these fat, worthless, brain-dead parasites would pull their heads out their a$$'s.
But I doubt it.
ADA was enacted by Congress, not Bureaucrats.
I guess it is fun and easy to blame so-called Bureaucrats but all they really do is attempt to implement what Congress passes.
> Is this not the case where you work?
Technically yes, but in practice, no.
However, the City now requires contractors rebuilding streets to replace the old granite monuments with new brass disks. Trouble is, usually, the low bid contract leaves little room for accurate research and placement, so a monument line supposedly set to be on a ten foot offset is usually not.
Most times, if they get within two or three inches, it's a miracle. One of my colleagues routinely sends notes to the Borough Topo Bureau whenever he finds one, indicating what he found, basically saying, "your monument at the corner of Smith and 9th Streets is off by ....."
His records are almost always more accurate than whatever the contractor's surveyor used to install them.
On our construction projects, we require the contractor provide state plane coordinates on the existing monuments that will be destroyed (designated on the plans) and re-establish the monuments in the original location. This work has to be performed by a licensed land surveyor.
Sounds like someone needs educated.
Yes, the ADA was passed by Congress and signed into law by a president. I never claimed differently.
The problems described in the case above were not caused by the passing of the ADA. The ADA is many years old. It is not a new law. However, the problems were caused by minor changes in the rules by bureaucrats, not congress. If I'm wrong please post the law passed by Congress that caused this SNAFU.
If you actually believe that each and every new regulation, changes and interpretaions of regulations are done by Congress, you are seriously mistaken. Most regulations are proposed, enacted, and enforced by unelected bureaucrats. Congress only gets involved with changes in regulations when it is politically expedient.
If you are handicap and trip on ramp that is not up to code, you can always find a good ADA lawyer that will "help" you....
(I suspect that this is the main reason for strict tolerances in the construction of ADA ramps)
A few small, but important, tidbits you may have missed from the article:
"The curb ramp specifications had been approved by the Federal Highway Administration and by the Department of Justice"
"The change -- a small difference in the slope of the area from sidewalk to street -- is subtle, said Miki Esposito, interim director of Public Works."
"The interpretation of the federal rule changed between the time Lincoln's designs were approved in early 2010 and when the curbs and ramps were inspected in late 2010, Esposito said."
Yes, I saw that it was designed and approved before construction. IMHO, it should of been 'grandfathered'. I was commenting on the strict tolerances.
I Have Yet To Find Any Slope Changes In New Standards
So I am at a loss to even speculate what the inspector is thinking.
Paul in PA
I Have Yet To Find Any Slope Changes In New Standards
"The ADA was amended in 2008 to take effect in 2010, but construction or alterations to be made between September 2010 -- when regulations reflecting the revised law were published -- and March 2012 can use either set of standards or the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards, or UFAS."
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