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West Valley City Journal

City to install or improve pedestrian ramps throughout the city

May 02, 2022 09:25PM ● By Travis Barton

By Travis Barton | [email protected]

The West Valley City Council unanimously approved a resolution that would see close to 40 pedestrian access ramps built around the city.

Recently the city has bought various corner pieces of land in preparation for this project giving access ramps to sidewalks.

Public Works Director Dan Johnson explained to the council in April the “project would focus primarily on adding ramps” to locations where there are high curbs with no ramps at all, aiming to take care of the “worst of the worst” corners.

The resolution approved a contract with Acme Construction for the project for almost $275,000 with the public works department receiving the authority to use an additional $25,000 to fix any further issues they may find during the work.

“It’s hard to go into a neighborhood and fix some things, but not everything,” Johnson told the council. “Certainly resources are always limited but we’ll do our best to capture what we can.”

Mayor Karen Lang referred to an issue several years ago in her neighborhood where a ramp was fixed, there was an additional issue with the sidewalk, but wasn’t fixed and had to be repaired later when it was possibly more expensive.

Johnson said the extra $25K gives them the “latitude” to add smaller fixes.

Councilman Jake Fitisemanu Jr. asked if similar consideration or project could be given to the sidewalks themselves. City officials explained that is determined from policy discussions under URMMA (Utah Risk Management Association) of which the city is a member. Those discussions establish policies and best practices and how “fast or slow” the city can move, based on its resources, to prioritize sidewalk safety.

Funds for the project come from the class C road funds and the transportation sales tax passed a few years ago.