In 2013, a difficult winter left many St. Paul streets riddled with potholes.

The mayor’s office moved quickly to tackle the “Terrible 20” transit corridors, the busiest and most decrepit of the bunch, and complaints have died down — with a $1 million exception.



While the streets were repaired, dozens of old curb cuts — the ramps that allow pedestrian and wheelchairs to move from the street to the sidewalk — were not brought up to modern standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, disability advocates say.

Under pressure from the disability community, St. Paul has identified about 230 ramps that need to be retrofitted. A few dozen will be redone by the end of 2017 as part of unrelated street projects. That still leaves 200 ramps that need attention — at a total cost of $1 million.

Following roughly a year of debate and the threat of lawsuit, the St. Paul City Council voted on Jan. 13 to alter city policy and bring curb ramps up to federal ADA standards at the same time future major road work progresses, including mill and overlay projects.

FEDERAL REQUIREMENT

There are specific standards that dictate what an ADA-compliant curb ramp looks like — slope, width, landing area. The standards are set by the U.S. Justice Department and the federal Access Board, and also have been adopted by the state.

Steven Schmidt, an attorney with the Minnesota Disability Law Center, said clients became concerned when they noticed that as the work progressed on the St. Paul streets, “the city was not doing any work to the curb ramps.”

Before the council vote earlier this month, St. Paul Public Works officials maintained that the curb ramps were in keeping with standards in place when the sidewalks were built. They also maintained that ADA standards require modern updates to ramps when streets are altered, but the mill and overlay work didn’t meet the definition.

“(The debate) was triggered by the question: ‘Well, what’s an alteration?’ ” Schmidt said.

Public works officials note that they don’t consider mill and overlay work to be construction projects.

“Mill and overlays are work done on the street’s surface,” said public works spokesman Joe Ellickson. “It’s a small distinction our engineers are particular about. Mill and overlays simply impact the top few inches of the street. A construction or reconstruction of the street involves curbs, gutters and other aspects of the street.”

Until this month, city policy read: “If the curb ramp is not damaged and meets the specifications in place at the time of original construction, the ramp will remain. Curb ramps that are in poor condition or noncompliant with specifications at the time of installation will be replaced.”

As part of the Jan. 13 vote, the city council agreed to add new language stating that “the city will bring all existing curb ramps on altered streets into compliance with the accessibility standards in place at the time of the alteration.”

LAWSUIT AVERTED?

The Minnesota Disability Law Center shared a draft complaint with the city in June 2015, but stopped short of filing a civil suit in Ramsey County District Court.

“Since that time, we’ve been talking back and forth, and working on the language that was part of that resolution,” Schmidt said.

Public works has begun to improve the curb cuts on streets that already have been milled and overlaid. It will continue to do so moving forward, said city officials.