Mon, Jul 06, 2009
 At this intersection along East Pima Street, the new compliant wheelchair ramp is visible, along with the faux brick. Brian J. Pedersen / arizona daily star
RANCHO RESORT MAINTANANCE POSITION Finance and Accounting Charles E. Gillman Company Accounting Specialist Administrative & Professional Tucson Urban League CEO/President Administrative & Professional Jorgensen Brooks Group Counselor Mechanical Komatsu Equipment Co Resident Field Mechanic Sales and Marketing Everready Glass Sales Reps Tucson RegionTaxpayer watcharizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.02.2008
A recently completed sidewalk-improvement project in Midtown has ensured that a one-mile stretch of East Pima Street complies with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
But at least one area resident wonders why the city of Tucson chose to tear out part of the street's existing decorative sidewalk design and not replace it with the same material.
"At all of the intersections of the residential streets, all of the (sidewalk) ramps had been done in a red concrete, and they were stamped to look like bricks," resident Jeff Rosenberg said of the sidewalks on Pima between North Craycroft and North Wilmot roads.
"They redid them all, just recently, but they didn't put them back in the red-brick-stamped concrete like we paid for originally," Rosenberg said. "If they originally thought to do that mile that way (with red concrete), I would have expected them to put that back in."
The reason for the ramp replacement was to keep the city eligible for federal funding for road projects, said Michael Graham, a spokesman for the city's Transportation Department. Tucson was audited in 2005 for ADA compliance, and many sidewalk ramps were deemed unacceptable and needed to be redone.
The Pima Street project — which used the more standard gray concrete and did not involve any stamping — cost the city about $80,000, Graham said. To have used the red concrete and stamp it to look like the old ramps would have cost another $40,000, he said.
"Cost was one issue," Graham said.
Also, Rosenberg said he believed that when the ramps were being replaced, construction crews removed more concrete than what was required to put in improved ramps.
"They ripped out more than they needed to," said Rosenberg, who said he was able to persuade the city to leave some parts of the old stamped design intact on the road's north side.
Graham said it was necessary to replace nearly all of the concrete at an intersection in order to make the ramps compliant. There was also the issue of trying to make the corners look as nice as possible, he said.
"In some sections, if we were to just do the ramps and replace some of the sidewalks, you'd have had a mismatch of regular concrete with the stamped concrete," Graham said. "Our project manager felt it would be more aesthetically pleasing to have a uniform pattern."
— Brian J. Pedersen
Higher cost is reason ramps resembling brick not redone
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