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New sidewalk ramps in city help blind, deaf pedestrians - News - Standard Speaker
Small half-circles rising from plates near curbs are part of a new design for sidewalk ramps on Church Street.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is installing plates with pebbly surfaces to help people with visual impairments. By feeling the plates with their shoes or hearing a different sound when their cane taps the plates, the people will know that they are approaching an intersection.
Called truncated domes, the plates now are required by federal regulations.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is installing them during projects along roadways like Church Street where the ramps were built in the 1990s before the regulations took effect.
Money comes from federal stimulus funds.
In addition, the grade on ramps won't exceed 8.33 percent to accommodate all pedestrians and wheelchairs.
Al Mertz of Mobility Distributing, a McAdoo company that equips people to live independently, said he has seen truncated domes at new construction projects in places like Harrisburg and near the Beacon Diner on Route 309 in Hometown.
"I have never heard of any complaints. They ones I've seen are textured so they wouldn't be slippery. They were yellow," Mertz said.
Karen Dussinger, spokeswoman for PennDOT in Dunmore, said the Church Street work is part of a $1.59 million contract with Reading Materials for road and ramp renovations. Earlier this summer, the state hired contractors to put down truncated domes on Diamond Avenue at Laurel Street as part of renovations.
PennDOT allocated $32 million of stimulus money for 15 contracts for ramp projects around the state, Dussinger said. Also, the department is performing 85 resurfacing projects with $406 million in stimulus funding.
Statewide, she estimated the cost at $820 million for installing truncated domes on the 117,000 ramps that need them.
Small half-circles rising from plates near curbs are part of a new design for sidewalk ramps on Church Street.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is installing plates with pebbly surfaces to help people with visual impairments. By feeling the plates with their shoes or hearing a different sound when their cane taps the plates, the people will know that they are approaching an intersection.
Called truncated domes, the plates now are required by federal regulations.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is installing them during projects along roadways like Church Street where the ramps were built in the 1990s before the regulations took effect.
Money comes from federal stimulus funds.
In addition, the grade on ramps won't exceed 8.33 percent to accommodate all pedestrians and wheelchairs.
Al Mertz of Mobility Distributing, a McAdoo company that equips people to live independently, said he has seen truncated domes at new construction projects in places like Harrisburg and near the Beacon Diner on Route 309 in Hometown.
"I have never heard of any complaints. They ones I've seen are textured so they wouldn't be slippery. They were yellow," Mertz said.
Karen Dussinger, spokeswoman for PennDOT in Dunmore, said the Church Street work is part of a $1.59 million contract with Reading Materials for road and ramp renovations. Earlier this summer, the state hired contractors to put down truncated domes on Diamond Avenue at Laurel Street as part of renovations.
PennDOT allocated $32 million of stimulus money for 15 contracts for ramp projects around the state, Dussinger said. Also, the department is performing 85 resurfacing projects with $406 million in stimulus funding.
Statewide, she estimated the cost at $820 million for installing truncated domes on the 117,000 ramps that need them.
