With Ohio Department Of Transportation's (ODOT) Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Transition Plan requirements to address ADA compliance for roadway infrastructure across the state, ODOT has been taking steps to catalogue the compliance of existing infrastructure to develop a strategy for replacement of non-compliant elements. Through previous efforts, ODOT had begun data collection across the state to catalogue their existing infrastructure by county that was stored in ODOT's Transportation Information Mapping System (TIMS) database. Due to the massive collection efforts to cover the state’s 88 counties and thousands of locations, number of staff involved, and variation in how the data was collected, the information required confirmation to ensure accuracy. ODOT tasked B&N with developing a process to consistently and efficiently collect field data, confirm pedestrian facility non-compliance in the field, and streamline construction document development for funding estimation and bidding.
Mahoning County, in northeastern Ohio, was selected for this effort as the pilot location. The county has a blend of small to medium sized cities and several rural communities with ADA facilities. The available data for the county was provided to B&N to guide the process development. The data, identified by location and a specific inventory file number, had been ranked as low, medium, and high priority and non-compliant facilities identified.
181 curb ramps and 106 pushbutton facilities across 89 intersections were deemed as non-compliant per the initial assessment performed by ODOT. To streamline the field data verification, B&N developed a data collection app that captured the various ramp and pushbutton criteria necessary for compliance. A route was identified to avoid backtracking since the ramps were located throughout the county. Field staff were trained on the correct and consistent process for measuring the criteria and coding it into the app prior to heading to the field. By providing the training and mapping the routes ahead of time, the data collection for these facilities was accomplished in two days.
This app used GPS coordinates to georeference and tag the collected information to each intersection. Entering data through the app on iPads allowed for instant uploads to the database that could be accessed in real time by staff in the office. All of the data was exportable, providing a deliverable that ODOT could import into their asset management system to update their system.
After completing the data collection, B&N created construction documents and cost estimates for ODOT to use to develop bid packages and construction mitigation plans, as well as justification documents for any ADA facility removals. The documents were developed based on available field and aerial observations with enough information to provide contractors with constructible projects to replace non-compliant curb ramps and pedestrian push button facilities. The plan package referenced current standard construction drawings in place of full curb ramp detail layouts, with guidance on the layouts to provide the contractor additional information to ensure ADA compliance in the new construction.