The Chronicle‘s Rad Sallee reports that a federal judge has ordered the city to construct wheelchair ramps along certain streets in order to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act:
U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal ruled last week that the city of Houston must install wheelchair ramps in the curbs of 34 intersections in the Montrose area — and any others where entire blocks of a street are repaved in the future.
The requirement, a provision of the Americans with Disabilities Act, was triggered when the city repaved West Alabama and other streets in preparation for an expected flood of traffic when Spur 527 was closed for reconstruction.
Rosenthal ruled in favor of plaintiff Kristen Jones and her attorney Dan Lundeen in 2004 and last year approved the list of intersections on streets including West Alabama, Fairview and Webster.
The new, permanent, injunction says the ADA requirements apply to any Houston street that gets resurfaced in the future “from intersection to intersection,” and to newly constructed streets.
Assistant City Attorney Don Fleming said the city’s former policy was not to rebuild ramps if they were still “usable,” but to install new ramps if there were none present when a street was resurfaced.
“The mayor, the city and its engineers are committed to full compliance with the court order, the ADA and related standards to ensure complete access,” Fleming said.
That’s good to hear! But maybe a little more effort towards complying with the ADA would have headed off the need for litigation (and the cost, for that matter).
