Crystal City is finishing up a project to bring all the city’s sidewalk intersections into compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards.
Crystal City Administrator Jason Eisenbeis said becoming ADA compliant is an important goal for the city.
“The Americans with Disabilities Act ensures people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. We’re committed to creating an inclusive and accessible world for everyone,” Eisenbeis said.
He said one of the best things about Crystal City is how almost every street has sidewalks. However, not all sidewalks or intersections are ADA compliant because they were installed many years ago.
“There were no ADA compliance rules back then,” Eisenbeis explained.
The ADA accessibility guidelines have several requirements for sidewalk intersections. Curb ramps are required wherever a sidewalk crosses a curb, such as at a street intersection. They are required to have a slope of less than 8.33 percent and a detectable warning device with a raised dome surface and contrasting color. Curb ramps are especially important for those who are blind or have low vision.
In 2022, Eisenbeis said, the city applied to receive a $250,000 yearly Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) administered by the Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation to bring sidewalk intersections into compliance. The city received its first grant in 2022 and began the ADA sidewalk intersection improvement project that year.
The city received an additional $250,000 in 2023 and another $250,000 grant in 2024 to continue the project.
Eisenbeis said since 2022, the city has spent approximately $760,000 on engineering and intersection ramp improvements. He said the city pays for the engineering, and the grants fund the actual improvements.
Due to the nature of the grant, the city can’t replace entire sidewalks with grant money, only ADA non-compliant intersections. So, for now, the city does not have the resources to completely remove and replace all non-compliant sidewalks.
Eisenbeis said the city has been replacing ramps ahead of upcoming paving projects.
“For instance, if we’re going to repave a section of town next year, we’ll replace the ramps in that area of town this year. It’s works well,” Eisenbeis said. “We work with our engineering firm and identify the section of town where we’ll be paving the following year. We’ll then create a scope of work that we believe is close to $250,000 based on the engineers estimate.”
Eisenbeis said these ADA compliance upgrades can benefit everyone, but especially people who use wheelchairs, older people, mothers with strollers and children using toys like bicycles, scooters and skates.
Eisenbeis said he has seen a lot of residents walking, running and biking in the streets, which can be dangerous, adding that he hopes the new ADA compliant intersections will encourage those people to stay off the streets.
“We prefer people to use the sidewalks as they provide a safer means for people who are not in a motorized vehicles to travel throughout town.”
Eisenbeis said that while older intersections needed to be brought into compliance, all new projects have met ADA-compliant guidelines for many years.
“All our street, sidewalk and lighting projects we’ve done on our main thoroughfares are always designed and built to be ADA compliant, so actually we’ve been doing these improvements for the entire 24-and-a-half years I’ve been involved with the city,” he said.
Eisenbeis said there are only a handful of intersections left in town that are not ADA compliant, and the city is working to get to 100 percent compliance.
“In 2025, we’ll be redoing all the sidewalks, including ADA compliant intersections on both sides of Taylor Avenue from Second Street to Fifth Street, including sidewalks to Mississippi Avenue on Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth streets,” he said. “This project is funded by a grant as well and is out for bid right now.
“After this project, I think we’ll be close to having 100 percent ADA compliant intersections, which is something we’re proud of.”