ADA Ramp Surveys in Santa Rosa, CA

Santa Rosa has gone further than most cities its size on right-of-way accessibility. The city publishes an ADA self-evaluation and transition plan update covering facilities, programs, and the public right-of-way, works to the current ADA Standards for Accessible Design and to PROWAG, and has developed prioritization criteria for curb ramp construction along with a published list of top-priority curb ramps and a public route for requesting a curb cut. Practically, that produces steady demand for measured conditions: ramps have to be inventoried before they are prioritized, and verified after they are built. Downtown and Railroad Square are where the measurement gets fussy. Railroad Square’s stone and brick buildings sit on old walks, and the district’s paving, tracks, and crossings put changes in level and unusual surface textures directly in the accessible route.

The tolerances are the same everywhere and they are tight: 8.33 percent maximum ramp run, 2.083 percent cross slope under the 2010 ADA Standards and 2 percent under California Building Code Chapter 11B, 1:48 in all directions across accessible stalls and aisles, 60-inch minimum landings, and 1:10 curb ramp flares. A two-foot smart level samples one line and misses the rest, which is a real problem on a warped or repaired corner. We scan the ramp, flares, landing, gutter, and adjacent walk in one setup and compute slopes across the full width of the ramp from the resulting surface, tied to control so the numbers are repeatable and comparable to a later epoch.

Deliverables are inventory-ready: slope and cross-slope exhibits keyed to spot elevations, per-ramp tables against Caltrans Standard Plans A88A and A88B, detectable-warning notes, and a layered DWG base map for the design team. We supply the measurements; a CASp inspector or architect makes the compliance determination. See ADA compliance surveys and 3D scanning in Santa Rosa.