From a bridge supporting rush-hour traffic to a pipe bringing water to your faucets, civil infrastructure isn’t always glamorous, but it’s the spine of our communities. For engineers and contractors building these lifelines for government, the related contracts are not just paperwork—they are the game plan. Welcome to our series on construction contracting in the…
Category: Construction
April is National Safe Digging Month
Yes construction can and does take place all year long. But in the Midwest where frost can get down to about three to five feet, activity tends to drop off as winter sets in. We typically use this time indoors to plan for next year’s projects, and as the robins show up and warmer breezes…
Building Safety Month Kick-off
Well it’s here! Building Safety Month – a month to promote pretty much what it says: BUILDING SAFETY. And because all of us need to spend time in buildings or some sort of shelter, Building Safety Month is really for everyone. This year, the International Code Council (ICC) which sponsors the campaign has established four…
Noncompliant ADA Facilities – Playground Access – How would you fix it?
The other day I was visiting a community in Illinois for the day and met a local person who was very excited about the new playground equipment being installed in his neighborhood. He encouraged me to check it out since he said it was the first time the community had upgraded the site since his…
Mapping the Accessible Path
The Data Science for Social Good (DSSG) team, a group out of the University of Washington, has been involved in an effort to improve mapping of the pedestrian way. By making use of the work from the OpenSidewalks project, they created AccessMap – a trip planning tool for people with limited mobility. With this tool, people can find the…
Gamifying and Crowdsourcing ADA Inspections
The Makeability Lab at the University of Maryland is on a mission to "collect street-level accessibility information from every street in the world and enable design and development of a novel set of location-based technologies for accessibility." In order to achieve this goal, they set up an interactive website where people can inspect, identify, and…
Celebrating 25 Years of ADA
Today marks the 25th anniversay of the signing of the ADA legislation. This milestone is a good time to look around your community and see just how much your governmental agency has accomplished in removing barriers for those who have disabilities. Do you have a transition plan for identifying and removing barriers? When was the…
Happy New Year 2015!
We are starting out the new year of 2015 still a little overwhelmed by everything that happened in 2014. This was due to several factors including an increased yet exciting work load at our primary jobs and some major changes we were making in our personal lives leaving little time to hop online and share…
Federal-aid Essentials Update – ADA Requirements for Resurfacing Projects
See below for a recent Federal-aid Essentials Update from the FHWA. This information will be particularly helpful to local agencies: Are you aware that Federal law requires the installation of curb ramps or other modifications when a highway project alters a roadway? To learn more visit the new information module and watch the short video…
Submit Your Ideas on Transportation & Assistive Devices & Technologies
The U.S. DOT through the FHWA has opened a dialogue on Transportation and Assistive Devices and Technologies. You can visit their Ideascale site to offer your own ideas about how best to make use of technologies to enhance and support mobility for transportation users with disabilities. It's important for all of us in involved in…