Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities act put forth in 1990 has set several rules, known as Rules of the ADA, that property managers are required to comply with. The Americans with Disabilities Act defines several specific criteria for which property owners and managers must adhere to ensure the safe traversal of said property for pedestrians, particularly disabled pedestrians. Those who are disabled face unique challenges that make getting from one place to the next often cumbersome, difficult, and require special assistance and/or equipment to accomplish. This can be confounded, and even made extremely dangerous by improper care of one’s sidewalks or walkways. Lack of Care can lead to trip hazards which can be the cause of serious injury for pedestrians, especially those with disabilities. Precision Concrete Cutting can help you restore your sidewalk to a standard that meets ADA regulations, without the extreme cost of replacement.
There could be some confusion on the terms ‘public property’ and ‘private property. Even if you operate members only, or a private organization, you are still subject to ADA rules. Most organizations like these will still exist in a publicly accessible location such as a plaza, office building, or strip mall. In short, understand that the ADA standards apply to commercial and public entities that have “places of public accommodation” of any kind. This means that if you own property that is accessible to be publically walked on even for passersby, you have to abide by these regulations. Some of the examples of places that need these standards are locations such as assembly areas, medical care facilities, places of lodging, housing at places of education, detention, and correctional facilities, social service center establishments, and residential dwelling units.
Precision Concrete Cutting provides a patented, state-of-the-art sidewalk cutting, smoothing, and leveling process offered by no other sidewalk contractor. While most would opt to replace the sidewalk entirely or the individual panels that are damaged, FSS can help you save thousands and bring you back into compliance! The machinery and methods we utilize are guaranteed to completely remove and trip hazards from uneven sidewalks, concrete walkways, and handicap access ramps, making them an ADA compliant walkway. A ‘trip hazard’, according to the ADA, is any vertical change of over 1/4 inch or more at any joint or crack. Since the ADA demands strict compliance, trip hazards represent a legal liability to our clients. Cities, school districts, hospitals, churches, shopping malls, universities, apartment complexes, and other large buildings are all extremely concerned with this liability. This means also having a slope of 1:12 on sidewalk panels and handicap accessible areas and why measurements have to be precise and leave non-slip surfaces so there are no more trip hazards.
Precision Concrete Cutting offers a far better, and less expensive way than a replacement to fix your sidewalk and walkways bringing them into ADA compliance. Call today to learn how we can cut, shave and smooth out any uneven portion so that they fall into Sidewalk Compliance from the ADA.
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