Page 26 - Sept/Oct 2018 Vol 36 No 3

TULLAHOMA
Quality Fix for Safer Sidewalks
Managing public infrastructure is
a balancing act. Walking the fine line
between available funds and needed
repairs is a recipe for stress. If you’re a
municipality in charge of sidewalks, you
know those come with their own set of
challenges as the sidewalks age.
The City of Tullahoma partnered over
the last two years with Precision Concrete
Cutting for a cost-saving, quality fix for
their aging sidewalks, making them safer
and easier for pedestrians to use.
Joseph Norris is the owner and president
of Precision Concrete Cutting (PCC)
for Alabama and Tennessee. Across the
nation, PCC has been implementing its
sidewalk repair method since 2002. But
Norris said the service is more in demand
than ever before, as local and national
focus turns to The Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance for
sidewalks.
“We have shifted into becoming
experts on ADA compliant sidewalks
and walkways,” Norris said. “We get calls
to implement a maintenance plan while
keeping budgets in consideration.”
The company is currently working with
the cities of Nashville, Memphis, Jackson
and Gallatin, along with other Tennessee
municipalities to address their sidewalk
safety hazards.
Norris called sidewalks a city’s corridors, make a high volume of repairs quickly and
connecting one district or neighborhood
with another and contributing to the
attractiveness and beautification of an
area. But, they are also subject to wear and
tear from use and natural forces. Freezing
and thawing, shifting soil, invasive tree
roots, all can cause vertical displacement
of sidewalks along expansion joints
and cracks. This creates dangerous trip
hazards for walkers with no disabilities
and an impassable thoroughfare for
those in wheelchairs. And, it exposes the
entities responsible for sidewalks to costly
litigation.
In Tullahoma, the process started with
meetings, getting to know City officers
and department heads, and understanding
the “high priority or high traffic” sidewalk
areas, Norris said.
Then, the PCC team hit the streets.
“We were boots on the ground, with
measuring tools, surveying for uneven
26 TPW September/October 2018
Before (left): Shifting soil over time has created an uneven section at the joint on this sidewalk. After
(right): Precision Concrete Cutting creates an incline and smooth transition to remove the trip hazard.
sidewalks. We document anything over a
quarter inch,” Norris said.
They also documented anything
that was beyond the scope of Precision
Concrete Cutting’s work and would require
removing and replacing concrete. All this
information was compiled into a detailed
survey of the area, including a map and
longitude and latitude coordinates for
potential problem spots, all in a GIS-ready
format.
“We cast a net over everything we’re able
to repair and turn over the detailed data of
the areas we’re not able to repair,” Norris
said. “It allows the entity to have everything “This was very old concrete. When it is
repaired possible at that reduced rate and
only remove and replace what they have
to.”
In all, PCC identified about 650 sidewalk
areas in need of repair, and about 10
percent of those needed to be removed and
replaced, a figure Norris said is typical of
other jobs.
Work was completed in two phases
in July 2017 and May 2018. PCC’s team
measures the vertical displacement, then
cuts the elevated portion of sidewalk to
ADA specifications and creates a smooth
transition at the joint. Because they’re not
removing and pouring concrete, they can
efficiently, an average of eight to 12 minutes over rip-and-repour saved Tullahoma
per repair, which in turn keeps costs low.
The areas of work in Tullahoma included
East Grundy Street from Northeast Atlantic
Street to North College Street, Jackson
Street North to Jackson Street South, and
Stone Boulevard from Wilson Avenue to
West Lincoln Street.
“The sidewalks the city designated for us
to repair included neighborhoods and high
traffic areas,” said Norris. “The problem
By Shannon Carey
was that their sidewalks contained trip
hazards throughout them. The uneven
sidewalks were created by tree roots,
freezes and thaws, and expansive soils.”
One aspect that made the work in
Tullahoma unique was the nature of
the concrete itself. The work spanned
one or two historic districts, and Norris
said PCC’s method helps maintain the
integrity of historic neighborhoods’
sidewalks without mismatched concrete
patches.
“We run into all types of concrete,
different hardnesses, ages, etc.,” he said.
old concrete, it may be a little more brittle
or feeble, or sometimes it has cured its
whole life and is incredibly hard. We want
to make sure we’re taking care of what’s
out there. In historic districts, we’re able to
salvage that historic concrete. We make it
a real point to be incredibly timely, but to
make sure we treat that area as a historic
area. People have walked on that for
generations past, and we want to preserve
that by making sure that the finish is
aesthetically up to standard.
“We use a hand tool. These guys are
using their hands, not running a machine
over it or scarifying it like a grinder.”
Norris estimated that PCC’s method
around $500,000. He said municipalities
who are interested in having Precision
Concrete Cutting bring their sidewalks
into ADA compliance can start with a
pilot job to allow the city to assess PCC’s
performance.
“Our push right now is to build those
relationships in Tennessee and show those
municipalities how we can assist, how we
can be a tool in the belt,” said Norris.