ADA-Compliant Curb cuts, Safety Number One

Imagine being visually impaired and walking along a sidewalk then suddenly falling off the edge; you just could not detect it in time. What about being a person in a wheelchair and unable to located access on and off the sidewalk. Millions of Americans experienced this helpless feeling for years and were unable to do anything about it. Those days are now over. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law approximately 15 years ago to ensure that everyone, regardless of physical limitations, had equal access to public transportation.  No longer can you just build a curb without ramps/curb cut and forget about it. The truth is that many municipalities did not even know that their curb cuts did not comply with ADA standards. The American with Disabilities Act requires ramps on streets or roads wherever there are curbs or entry barriers from a pedestrian walkway.

In recent years, one of the biggest additions to curb ramps is by incorporating Detectable Warning Tactile Tiles in the ramp/curb cut design to help the visually impaired determine when they are entering a roadway. It was determined that a “Truncated Dome” design proved to be the most viable solution beating out other viable solutions such as grooves and striations or exposed aggregate when related safety concerns such as maintenance, snow and ice removal were added in the mix. When it comes to installing truncated dome into the ramp, each may have a very unique design but a must is that all detectable warnings must extend 24 inches (610 mm) in the direction of travel and cover the curb ramp’s full width.   

For more information on curb ramp/curb cut designs, please visit the leader in the industry www.armor-tile.com.

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