By Molly Hunter
Concerns about accessibility came up during a July 28 public meeting on the Pedestrian Mall Improvements Project.
City Manager Geoff Fruin said the public meeting, in the Sheraton Hotel, 210 S. Dubuque St., was a chance for community members to review the current designs for the 2018 Ped Mall reconstruction, ask questions, and suggest changes.
“In the late-90s was the last major work,” Fruin said. “Most of the work was above-ground, so the utilities weren’t addressed, and the bricks weren’t addressed at that time.”
Scott Sovers, the city senior civil engineer, said necessary upgrades to the water and electrical infrastructure under the Ped Mall have given the city an opportunity to make other improvements.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to do some resurfacing on the paving and do it all in one shot,” Sovers said.
But the repaving is exactly what Iowa City resident Harry Olmstead had some doubts about.
“My concerns were because of raised areas,” Olmstead said. “A person in a wheelchair can’t get up on them to get to where they want to go unless they go all the way around.”
Olmstead said it’s a design problem the city needs to address.
Meanwhile, the bricks present their own problems. Olmstead said any surfaces with joints in them where concrete can dry out are difficult to navigate in a chair. At times, the bricks are also often slippery, he said.
“There are some challenges with the slipperiness of the current bricks,” Fruin said. “We think we can address that through new concrete pavers and some adjustments of the grade.”
By installing concrete pavers below a new brick layer, city officials hope to be able to prevent the bricks from shifting around, creating an uneven surface.
It would be easier and cheaper to use concrete rather than the brick surface, Fruin said.
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“But it would be at the sacrifice of the charm of the area,” he said. “The bricks offer a soft character and aesthetic that people have really come to cherish.”
In the end, Fruin said, the brick surface is mostly an aesthetic choice.
“So we take aesthetics over disability,” Olmstead said. “What can I say? It shouldn’t be that way. We need to put people first.”
Olmstead also addressed the Ped Mall playground’s lack of accessibility.
“No child in a chair is going to be able to get up on that,” Olmstead said. “If we’re going to do this right and spend 6 and a half billion, then we can put in a playground that’s [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliant.”
Other additions to the Ped Mall will include canopy-shaded seating in Black Hawk Mini Park and a permanent stage canopy outside the hotel. The city also plans to introduce additional lighting throughout the area.
The project will require the removal of 26 existing trees out of the 88 in the area. The city also has plans to plan 27 new trees as part of the project.
A meeting was held for business owners in the affected area earlier in the day on July 28.
“By and large, the comments were very positive,” Fruin said. “There’s some excitement about the improvements. There’s also some nervousness about the construction, which we know from experience is tough on businesses.”
Fruin said the city plans to work closely with local business to minimize the effect of the construction.
The city will open the project up for bid in February 2018, Sovers said.
