These ADA-compliant curb ramps were added at Airport Road and Highway 99E when ODOT had the intersection rebuilt in 2023.
Did you know there was a name for those yellow panels of little bumps on curb ramps that hurt your feet when you wear shoes with thin soles? I didn’t. Not until I came across the term and looked up what it meant.
Those things are called “truncated domes.” If you look at them closely, those bumps do look like tiny domes cut off around the middle. But they could call them “yellow curb bumps” just as well. They’re intended to let blind pedestrians sense where the sidewalk ends.
What made me think of this is that the Oregon Department of Transportation has just issued its latest annual report on rebuilding curb ramps so they comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Since 2017, the department said, it has made progress toward bringing 25,899 curb ramps on Oregon highways up to current requirements under the ADA. The state is required to do this by a settlement agreement with the Association of Oregon Centers for Independent Living.
Last year alone, ODOT contractors improved 2,442 curb ramps around the state, including several as part of a $17.4 million highway project in Halsey. Now, ODOT says the total of curb ramps completed around the state since 2017 is up to 11,188.
The total includes ramps that were rebuilt along the Highway 20 couplet in downtown Albany a few years ago, as well as new ramps at the intersection of Highway 99E at Airport Road and Albany Avenue (where I took photos for this story on Wednesday).
Gently sloped curb ramps are obviously useful and, for some people, necessary. But they’re not cheap.
Mindy McCartt, the ODOT public information officer for this area, told me that based on projects completed over the last three years, the average cost per curb ramp is about $58,000. That includes the cost of design, right of way, and $34,600 for construction including inspections.
From when the curb ramp program started in 2018 through its expected completion in 2032, ODOT expects to spend $1.8 billion on it.
“Of the $1.8 billion total cost,” McCartt said, “we have programmed $1 billion to spend by 2027 and written checks for $421 million as of January 2025.”
Keep that in mind the next time you step on truncated domes and don’t have to climb a steep curb. (hh)
This ramp panel at 99E and Airport Road has 300 — count ’em — truncated domes.
Toward the end of her life, my mother appreciated those sloped curbs as her mobility was severely compromised and stepping up was difficult and painful. The yellow paint was also helpful as her eyesight was nearly gone thanks to advanced macular degeneration. She despised the truncated domes as they threw off her balance and made using the ramps so much more difficult. Are they necessary to prevent slipping in wet or icy conditions? I can see that the color might not be sufficient for a blind person and the domes necessary for the textural difference.
So each corner of an intersection has 2 ramps. And there are 4 corners. So is the cost for an intersection 2 X 4 x $58K = $464,000?
Some of these “older” ramps do not have the same yellow truncated traction knobs” they were probably in place prior to the current type. Are these to be replaced? They have no real means to make them less slick when wet (especially when they begin to grow moss) or icy.