One of the monuments I needed to set this morning landed in the plastic insert of a handicap ramp. I've seen these things a bazillion times, and even casually seen them being installed, but I've never actually had to set a mark in one.
Everything went normally until the face of the Berntsen bit hit the tops of the plastic bumps. At first I thought I could just melt my way through them, but that didn't work. It wasn't until I had cut through them with a diamond saw that I realized that the bumps are filled with whatever binds the plastic to the concrete, apparently some kind of mortar. One I cut those pieces off, the bit was able to penetrate the plastic below. The countersinking tips just barely got through it, though, and I had to use a few taps of a chisel to get the last piece of the plastic donut out of the hole.
In the end it turned out okay:
you're a braver man than I doing anything to an ADA ramp other than walking on it. not sure about your parts, but somebody(s) around here holds ADA ramps as unequivocally sacrosanct. been paid twice now to as-built ramps that had been modified/molested in ways that would just as imperceptible to anyone as you setting a cap flush.
(and yes, i know "sacrosanct" presupposes the need for "unequivocally". that's how crazy the ADA ramp enforcer around here is.)
flyin solo, post: 436912, member: 8089 wrote: you're a braver man than I doing anything to an ADA ramp other than walking on it.
The thought did occur to me that I might be wandering into delicate territory, but on the other hand this is in a city that thought the following was a good way to retrofit handicap ramps into streets with too much slope adjacent to the gutter:
This is just one example of several around town. Anyone is an underpowered wheelchair who descends the ramp isn't going to get out of that hole except by backtracking.
Don't worry, the guy with the smart level duct taped to the arm of his wheel chair will check it.
Some day....I will witness someone actually using those stupid things.
It's been several decades and still waiting.
I can't say how many times I have lost my beer off the bottom rack of the shopping cart!
It is a good thing they make them bright yellow - so the blind people can see them more easily.
Did you know those bumps are coded? Different patterns for different situations, sort of like Braille.
Bruce Small, post: 436928, member: 1201 wrote: Did you know those bumps are coded? Different patterns for different situations, sort of like Braille.
Did not know that. The ones at my grocery store must be coded to shake items from the shopping cart.
I thought they were designed so that a wheelchair passing over them at the right speed would play 'I'd like to buy the world a coke'.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
I was with a roadway construction company years ago and somehow I wound up as the designated "show pony" to attend any local government meetings concerning our construction project.
Some numb-nutted TV watchdog had gotten ahold of our bid tabs and got on the local evening news explaining we were charging almost $20k per handicap ramp. The situation was aggravated by the fact the route was in a fairly rural area with no sidewalks (and no foot traffic). A local meeting was set up and yours truly was told by my boss to attend and diffuse the situation. And there were plenty of torches, pitchforks and mad citizens attending, wanting to know why we were gouging the city for just a few yards of concrete.
I did my homework and showed them the next three higher bidders were wanting to charge more than us for each ramp, so we were indeed the cheapest choice. I also explained since it was a FHWA job with the feds covering 80% of 3.5 million, they required the ramps. No ramps, no federal funds.
The icing on the cake was when I let the citizens know their fair city management had allocated $175K to rework the signal lights at one of the intersections (not part of our contract) to put in the crosswalk buttons and lighting...with nothing but cow pastures on all four intersection quadrants.
After the meeting the City Manager told me, "you could've left that part out...." 😉
Jim Frame, post: 436904, member: 10 wrote: One of the monuments I needed to set this morning landed in the plastic insert of a handicap ramp. I've seen these things a bazillion times, and even casually seen them being installed, but I've never actually had to set a mark in one.
Everything went normally until the face of the Berntsen bit hit the tops of the plastic bumps. At first I thought I could just melt my way through them, but that didn't work. It wasn't until I had cut through them with a diamond saw that I realized that the bumps are filled with whatever binds the plastic to the concrete, apparently some kind of mortar. One I cut those pieces off, the bit was able to penetrate the plastic below. The countersinking tips just barely got through it, though, and I had to use a few taps of a chisel to get the last piece of the plastic donut out of the hole.
In the end it turned out okay:
Is that a brass cap or a copper head. I set some copper heads for control points, then winter came, I should have placed a magnet in the hole below them. Duh
billvhill, post: 436933, member: 8398 wrote: Is that a brass cap or a copper head.
It's a Berntsen 1" copper disk with stem, installed with a plastic insert. No snow around here, so I don't use the magnets.
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The client didn't want to pay for the deluxe version, so I installed the base model.
Fancy...;)
[MEDIA=youtube]W87yNMNlcJo[/MEDIA]
Wendell framed Frame
The handicap ramp program in Pittsburgh destroyed more monuments than any dozer operator could ever aspire to. Worse yet, many times they were put back in after the work was done, but of course in a slightly different location. Some may have been left intact and the ramp built around them, but it is almost impossible to tell by looking if that is the case or not
I never thought I would see the day when drainage was less important than the percent of slope as read on a smart level. Literally changing the gutter pans on existing curbs forcing water to hold upstream in my local town. Need a outbreak of some mosquito borne disease caused by birdbaths in ADA retrofits to bring some common sense back. Jp
TxDot has adopted that safety inlets be installed along all State Highways at all drives and road intersections and any culverts under them.
Most everyone of them that I have encountered are placed with negative slope or just the opposite of what the ditch slope is creating a pooling effect under all the drives and intersecting roads.
At least in time the erosion of topsoil will fill in these places and make the ditch slope the same.
Problem is that when a designed minimum flow pipe is half foot filled or more to match the incoming and outflow, the pipe will not allow the flow expected for that location and water will flow over the highway at some point during heavy rainfall.