ADA Ramp Surveys in Emeryville, CA

Emeryville maintains an ADA coordinator and a transition plan program covering city policies, facilities, and sidewalk modifications, with Public Works responsible for city-owned facilities in the public right of way. But the accessibility work that actually comes up here is mostly private. Emeryville rebuilt itself from rail yards and factories into retail, office, hotel, and biotech in a few decades, which means most of the accessible route in this city runs across a privately owned parking field, a garage podium, a plaza, or a shopping center drive aisle rather than a city sidewalk.

That shifts the risk. Surface parking and podium decks are where accessible parking stalls and access aisles quietly go out of tolerance, because the code holds them nearly flat in every direction and a slurry seal, an overlay, or a re-striping to a new layout can put a compliant stall over the limit without anyone noticing. Ramps between parking levels, plaza steps and their companion ramps, loading and service entries, and the long exterior routes across the Bay Street, Powell Street, and Christie Avenue districts all need measured slopes, not assumed ones. Property teams repositioning older converted warehouse space run into the opposite problem: original floors and entries that were never level to begin with.

We scan the route and compute running slope, cross slope, landing dimensions, and level changes from the modeled surface, so the exhibit shows the worst section rather than one lucky reading. Deliverables include per-stall and per-ramp slope exhibits, spot elevations on a CAD plan, and the registered point cloud for design use. We document conditions; the CASp inspector or architect determines compliance. Related: 3D laser scanning in Emeryville, Emeryville as-built surveys, and the ADA compliance service page.