Mexico, MO, City Council approves ambitious 30-year sidewalk plan, moves towards Livable/Complete Streets, ADA compliance | The Mexico Ledger

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

Approximately 38 miles of Mexico sidewalks are not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to Jefferson City-based engineering firm Bartlett and West.

An $8.2 million, 30-year plan to change that was approved Monday by the Mexico City Council. . . .

The plan is a set of guidelines for sidewalk improvements, including prioritization and repair scheduling. The plan does not yet include exact funding sources. . . .

City’s sidewalks are listed as in poor, fair or good condition by Mark Twain Regional Council of Governments. Bartlet and West honed those classifications to determine how many feet of Mexico sidewalk were not compliant with ADA requirements. Mexico’s total sidewalks in any condition equal 55 miles, with 38 of those miles non-ADA compliant, or 68 percent of all city sidewalks.

“The council may recall we have worked toward a concept known as livable streets here,” Russell said. “Livable streets is a kind of a comprehensive approach ... to transportation that includes pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular traffic in design and rework.” . . .

The city made 1.2 miles worth of improvements to sidewalks in 2018 through grants, cost share, budgeted city funds and private funds. Another 1.2 miles of improvements is taking place this year through similar funding sources.

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Mexico, MO, City Council approves ambitious 30-year sidewalk plan, moves towards Livable/Complete Streets, ADA compliance | The Mexico Ledger

MoBikeFed comment: Kudos to the City of Mexico, to the Mark Twain Regional Council of Governments, which created the sidewalk assessments in cities throughout the Council several years ago and has worked to address the sidewalk issues the assessment discovered, and to MoDOT, which made the sidewalk assessments a statewide program in rural communities.

The effort to assess the current state of sidewalks in communities around the state, and then systematically address the issues found, has led to truly groundbreaking improvements in sidewalk connectivity and walkability in communities all across Missouri.

The City of Mexico is leading the way in addressing this very basic but very important issue.

For more about Complete Streets in Missouri--including how your community can start working towards Complete Streets--visit our Complete Streets page:

http://mobikefed.org/CompleteStreets