Morganton's sidewalks begin ADA compliance journey
Daxbot stopped for a quick chat in front of The Paper’s office on Tuesday, Aug. 27.
The two Dax robots and human technicians that roamed Morganton’s sidewalks in September have given city officials a better understanding of how accessible their walkways are and a plan for the future.
To tackle these walkways, the city have a multi-year plan as guiding resource for future public and private sidewalk repairs and budgeting for these projects. According to the prioritized plan, each of the first five years would cost $100,000, with a breakdown of the management repairs and “high-risk” locations. The total long-term costs after the five-years is $8.55 million.
“We hope to get started with repairing at the beginning of the new budget year, July 2025,” Morganton’s PIO Jonelle Sigmon said. She explained that City Manager Sally Sandy wants to better understand the extent of Hurricane Helene’s damages. Morganton’s public works department has already began clearing vegetation that impacts how accessible the walkway is.
Sigmon added that, “Our staff have not comprehensively reviewed the assessment and cannot comment on future cost plans or funding opportunities.”
Public entities such as Morganton are required by the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) to perform a self-assessment of their facilities on public property and right-of-ways to identify any obstacles or barriers to their accessible routes. These assessments are not required to be completed in any amount of time, for example, every three years.
The plan identified the following top 10 streets to prioritize:
- Lenoir Street
- North Green Street
- Linville Street
- Powe Street
- Fourth Street
- Hogan Street
- Independence Boulevard
- Cedar Street
- Avery Avenue
- Caldwell Street
The highest estimated cost is for curb ramp improvements, at $3.1 million, while trip hazards in the walkways accounted for 59.6% of the total ADA barrier findings. Lenoir Street ranked No. 1 with 221 barriers and a risk value of 974.57 (barriers/mile).
Use this QR code for the link to the Morganton Street Risk report.
The study and the prioritized plan derived from the two-week assessment that evaluated how well Morganton’s public right-of-way sidewalks met ADA requirements.
“The study found a total of 10,208 unique ADA barriers across 60.92 miles of right-of-way sidewalk … all public and some private sidewalks and crosswalks,” Sigmon said.
Additionally, the study concluded that the long-term costs of improving Morganton’s streets would be $8.55 million. The City could use alternative maintenance activities that could save around $1.75 million. These alternatives are less invasive, cost-effective methods for repairs like grinding down the sidewalk displacements versus replacing the full sidewalk panels.
Through the course of the study, Dax and PIM technicians evaluated the following categories:
- Curb ramp ADA compliance
- Vertical height displacements (trip hazards)
- Cracked and damaged panels
- Driveway cross-slope issues
- Crosswalk slope issues
- Sidewalk with a width of less than four feet
- Cross slope greater than 4% for more than 50 feet
- Sidewalk gaps and ends
- Obstructions
- Ponding in the pedestrian access route and street
PIM’s assessment technique uses a “risk-based approach” that measures the barriers per mile of the walkways. The ADA barriers are the physical elements that prevent accessible traveling. Higher barriers means higher risks.
This approach essentially measures the risk to residents traveling the accessible routes and defines the sidewalks that are out of compliance with Public Right of Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG).
The City contracted with Precision Infrastructure Management (PIM) to conduct the study required by the ADA for public entities. The total cost of the contract was $39,335.
All Dax data, including coordinates, photographs, and other forms of metadata, was stored in GIS databases. Dax was part of a pilot study between PIM and Daxbot, making the robot’s labor free to the City. The City of Madras in Oregon was previously part of the pilot program and now Los Angeles is part of Dax’s upcoming pilot phase.
The prioritization plan has laid out what Morganton’s streets/areas were out of ADA compliance. After the first five years with each costing $100,000, the remaining long-term repair cost is $8.55 million.
Public Works Director Michael Chapman is excited about this completed assessment and what it means for Morganton.
“This will give us the information we need to better prioritize maintenance, repair work, and give us a database to work from for years to come,” Chapman said. “As we have stated before, this is an ongoing project, and it will take years to complete everything listed out in this assessment.
“This assessment was intended to get our complete system mapped on GIS and give us a comprehensive report of the condition of our system. Now that we have this detailed information, it will help us plan for future projects and allow us to better manage and prioritize maintenance and repair to the system.”
Saydie Bean may be reached at 828-445-8595, ext. 2011, or saydie@thepaper.media.
