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By David Walsh

BY LANDON WOODROOF

Work replacing sidewalks along a stretch of Franklin Road in the heart of Brentwood should be wrapped up by the end of the day Friday, weather permitting, City of Brentwood Director of Engineering said Wednesday afternoon.

The sidewalk work has caused lane closures this week on this busy part of Franklin Road from just north of Williamsburg Road to Maryland Way. Harris said the city tried to minimize the impacts of those lane closures by scheduling this sidewalk replacement while school is out.

Still, some disruption is is inevitable, and Harris said crews were working hard to finish as soon as possible.

“The section of sidewalk being replaced on Franklin Road was in poor condition and had several places where the ground below had ‘heaved’ up creating an uneven surface, which would make it difficult to access with a wheelchair and presented a trip hazard to everyone,” Harris wrote in an email, explaining the reason for replacing the sidewalk.

As of Wednesday afternoon most of the sidewalk had been removed within the work zone, although an excavator was still lifting broken chunks of it into a dumpster near the road’s intersection with Maryland Way.

The replacement of old sidewalk will help the city’s compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The city is currently developing what is called an ADA Transition Plan, which all municipalities with 50 or more employees are required to have, Harris said.  That plan includes assessments of curb ramps, sidewalks and building accessibility throughout the city. Brentwood’s Capital Improvement Projects plan has funding in it that allows the city to incrementally address ADA-compliance issues.

“As you can imagine, this can be an expensive undertaking and is especially challenging for smaller municipalities,” Harris wrote. “That is why the law doesn’t require all the deficiencies to be corrected immediately, but rather those required to have a plan must have a long term means to make the repairs and make a good faith effort to bring all facilities into compliance with ADA requirements.”

The cost of this sidewalk work is approximately $50,000, the City of Brentwood’s Community Relations Director Deanna Lambert said.