SIDEWALK DISPLACEMENT: FULLERTON GRINDS OUT A SOLUTION

Age, weather, and tree roots combine forces to raise, buckle, or crack sidewalks. Ideally, repairs should be made as soon as they are reported, but the reality is that only so much work can be accomplished within any given budget year. The traditional methodology has been to prioritize the offending sections of sidewalk on a worst-case basis for either asphalt patches or replacement. In Fullerton, California, however, an innovative program for grinding down portions of damaged sidewalks to remove the hazard potential as an intermediary step is proving to be a great success. The program has enabled the city to provide a more rapid response to citizen complaints, as well as significantly reduce sidewalk-related liability claims. In addition, the program has not cost the city one cent of general operating funds to implement. The city's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program funds (federal funds) were used, since the program was considered a capital improvement rather than routine maintenance. To date the city has purchased two grinders with CDBG funds and a third machine with general fund money for use on problem sidewalks city-wide. (A condition of the CDBG funding is that the machines purchased with the funds be used solely in the CDBG project areas.) By the end of the 1989-1990 fiscal year, it is estimated that the program will save the city about $819,000 in terms of what it would have cost if the treated areas had been reconstructed rather than ground down. Total cost of the program has been $152,018 in CDBG funds. Also, since the program began, the city has paid a total of $43,350 for injury claims in the project area, or an average of $14,846 per year, which is well under the nearly $40,000 in claims paid in 1987, just prior to the grinding program.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1606878
• Corporate Authors:

  Public Works Journal Corporation

  200 South Broad Street
  Ridgewood, NJ  United States  07451
• Authors:
  • Mudrick, S P
• Publication Date: 1990-8

Media Info

• Features: Photos;
• Pagination: p. 50-51
• Serial:
  • Public Works
  • Volume: 120
  • Issue Number: 9
  • Publisher: Hanley Wood
  • ISSN: 0033-3840
  • Serial URL: http://www.pwmag.com

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cost effectiveness; Finance; Financing; Grinding; Hazards; Injuries; Insurance claims; Loss and damage claims; Repairing; Sidewalks
• Geographic Terms: Fullerton (California)
• Subject Areas: Finance; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Safety and Human Factors; I61: Equipment and Maintenance Methods;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00497290
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 30 1990 12:00AM