Talking TWM: Project Spotlight

TWM Contributor: Jeff Reis, PE, PTOE Transportation Engineering Lead

A Pedestrian Accessibility Project for the City of Pekin, IL

ADA 10-Year Transition Plan

Pedestrian accessibility provides benefits not only for people with mobility issues, but for all people within a community. The City of Pekin’s pedestrian system required a transition plan to better link neighborhoods, recreational resources, government facilities, retail centers, and business establishments for residents.

To facilitate and implement these physical changes to the City’s infrastructure, TWM’s transportation and Geospatial groups completed an ADA transition plan that involved surveying existing facilities including all sidewalks, curb ramps, and marked crosswalks to prioritize and replace all non-compliant pedestrian facilities within 10 years. A GIS database was also created for all existing pedestrian facilities in the City’s public right-of-way.

Project Purpose:

Determine priorities for non-compliant pedestrian facilities
Prepare a 10-year plan for pedestrian facility upgrades
Adopt ADA-compliant design standards and guidelines
Determine replacement costs for non-compliant pedestrian facilities
Provide public notice and opportunity for public participation

Screen shot of typical data at an intersection with colored intensity for LiDAR reflectivity

Utilizing the latest mobile LiDAR technology in data collection, TWM inventoried 133 centerline miles of City streets and collected LiDAR point cloud data throughout the public right-of-way. The use of mobile LiDAR allowed for a thorough yet relatively quick way of gaining accurate dimensions and grades for all pedestrian elements. Billions of points were collected, with the point density ranging from 50-200 data points per square foot spacing, depending on the varying speed of the collection vehicle and the varying distance to the object.

Items inventoried included:

Sidewalks
Curb Ramps
Curb/Gutters (in the vicinity of curb ramps only)
Marked Crosswalks (in the vicinity of curb ramps only)
Sidewalk Obstructions

The City was divided into 11 Districts to break the mapped areas into more easily analyzed portions. The Districts were created based on geometry of the roadways, which made a clear and distinct drivable path for mobile LiDAR data collection.

Overall map of Pekin, with individual District boundaries shown for data collection and analysis

After the inventory was collected and assembled into the GIS database, the information was analyzed to determine if the existing pedestrian elements were geometrically compliant with applicable ADA laws/PROWAG guidelines. Smaller, specific elements such as curb ramps, obstructions, and trip hazards were able to be directly categorized by TopoDOT® and flagged in GIS – directly being assigned a pass/fail coding and applicable green shades or red shades for visual color code.

Overall map of Pekin, with roadway jurisdiction noted

Once the non-compliant elements were determined and priced, the next step was to prioritize the non-compliant pedestrian facilities. Like many types of aging infrastructure and due to budgetary constraints, not all the needs were able to be immediately met. The next set of prioritization factors were geographic based criteria, such as proximity to public facilities and high pedestrian traffic areas including schools, hospitals, libraries, bus stops, places of employment, shopping areas, and group living communities.

Cost estimates were then developed for construction of the upgrades and based on all the criteria and `components, a 10-year action plan was recommended to properly plan, design, and execute ADA improvements. The City is also pursuing grant funding and opportunities through federal programs to aid in infrastructure development.

About TWM’s Transportation Services
TWM’s transportation engineers provide a full range of design and construction observation services, bringing our clients established relationships with reviewing agencies such as the DOT, DNR/NRC, and USACE. Our team has designed hundreds of miles of state highways, local roads and bridges, several roundabouts, thousands of curb ramps, bike trails and sidewalks, and multi-modal enhancements. They also assist municipalities with ADA planning and pavement management programs, in addition to completing traffic studies, coordinating public engagement meetings, negotiating purchases of land, and acquiring necessary permits.

Typical transportation projects include: