At 13th Avenue and Elm Street, a new curb ramp was under construction on April 8, 2026.
On Facebook, someone wondered why Albany was replacing functioning curb ramps on Elm Street with new ones. The answer is that rules are rules, especially federal rules, whether they make sense or not.
Under a $1.2 million city contract, Knife River will repave Elm Street this spring and summer, from Fifth Avenue to Queen Avenue. But first, the contractor is redoing the curb ramps that were installed when the street was rebuilt in 2000.
The federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), enacted in 1990, requires curb ramps so people in wheelchairs can cross the street. The standards for curb ramps have changed over time, and courts have held that when a street is rebuilt or repaved, curb ramps have to be brought up to snuff.
How much is this costing on Elm Street?
“As part of the Elm Street Overlay project, the City will replace 70 curb ramps for a total cost of $310,000,” said Chris Cerklewski, the engineer in Albany Public Works overseeing this project. “This works out to $4,428.57 per curb ramp.”
He explained further:
“Since there are a lot of curb ramps being done at the same time, this is a lower cost than what we often see when we replace a smaller number of ramps, where we would expect it to cost about $10,000 per ramp. This project also has an unusually large number of curb ramps since it is located in an older part of town where the streets are laid out on a grid and there are a lot more intersections than in other parts of town.
“The Americans with Disabilities Act, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court, requires that the curb ramps along a street must be upgraded to the current standard when an asphalt overlay is constructed or if the road is completely rebuilt (as was done back in 2000). The ADA standards have changed several times over the years so it is common for ramps that were replaced in the past to no longer meet the current requirements in effect today.”
In the older parts of town, there are many intersections with deep and abrupt curbs. They were built almost a century ago, and people with mobility problems can’t cross them at all.
It would make sense to spend money on proper ramps where none exist, before replacing older ramps that work even though they don’t meet exacting new standards for slope, width and detectable surfaces such as those yellow “truncated domes.”
But the city has to do what the rules say, unless it wants to lose when somebody takes it to court. (hh)
Here is one of the newly built curb ramps on Elm Street, complete with yellow “truncated domes.” This one is at 12th Avenue.
Hering’s argument amounts to this: the current ramps are totally adequate. Yet Hering has never once tried to navigate these curb cuts in a wheelchair. So, the question you gotta ask is – who has more credibility? Is it the Albany Armchair Blogger or is it the agency that makes continuous studies of the efficacy of the ramps? As is Hering’s want in most cases – what was done in the past is righteous and is all that is necessary. As such progress should stop at an arbitrary time a Blogger determines.
I vote for Hasso.
I’ll second that!
Hartman seems to be in support of throwing money away as long as it is someone else’s money. He has a history of that where the Walmart parking lot is concerned. Hasso makes a good point that if you spend money use it for the best bang for the buck, ie fix the old stuff that is impassable not the newer stuff that is passable. Odot replaced curb cuts down town that were .375 inch off but still easily useable, spending thousands of dollars to fix something that worked. It is just stupidity on parade, like demanding dozens of handicapped parking spots that many remain empty all he time at big box stores, instead of cutting back a few helping everyone else. If you hate so much, why not just stop reading and especially responding? Why not go bother the DH instead?
Rich Kellum: So, you respond to Hasso’s blog with comments about the Walmart parking lot, and you say hartman had something to do with it….but you don’t explain. You recommend that hartman not comment on Hasso’s blog. Are you Hasso’s assistant? You also say that a lot of handicap parking spaces in Albany remain empty. I observe that it is hard to find an empty handicap space at Fred Meyer and Walmart.
Do you see things through a different light? Maybe you are another new Jesus who came to earth along with President Trump.
My vote is for Hasso as well.
We’d all be better off without your blathering, Hartman.
Hasso: I know support is nice to have, but, letting someone named Richard say we would be better off without hartman’s blathering is hateful and wrong. You shouldn’t back that Richard guy by printing the second sentence he wrote. “Richard” does not speak for all of the rest of us.
hartman does not blather. He gets to the point, and the point is usually well taken. He is right that Hasso thinks the current ramps on Elm Street are fine and that people in wheelchairs just need to deal with it. Hasso, as much as I respect him, is a Libertarian after all. And, they want government to pretty much go away.
You have got to be kidding!
Find a couple of hateman’s responses that weren’t negative toward Hasso. Bet you can’t. That’s ALL he/she/it does.
You call hartman “hateman!” You are the hateful one, it seems. (And I didn’t out and out call you hateful.)
AGAIN! You can’t answer the question. Find a non negative response toward Hasso from your new found idol.
Not new-found. I have always liked hartman’s comments. I’m not going to dig through a bunch of Hasso’s blogs just because you order me to. “You are not my boss,” as kids used to be fond of saying. I don’t know what kids say nowadays. And, Kapaun, can you shut up now?
I did not know we were voting yet. Soon, i suppose.
Perspective on gas prices. How about that?