By Karen Lee
kl239@email.byu.edu
For the past eight years Ballard Gardner has been on a mission to repair the sidewalks of Provo City.
After developing patented diamond saw blades and repairing over 350 miles of Provo's sidewalks, Gardner's work isn't finished yet.
The Americans with Disabilities Act states that all trip hazards on public sidewalks need to be removed. The ADA defines a trip hazard as any vertical quarter-inch rise on a sidewalk.
To comply with the ADA, Provo City began its Sidewalk Trip Hazard Removal Project by hiring Ballard Gardner, owner of Amerex, a concrete cutting company.
Gardner's crews examine an area of sidewalk and take precise measures of all unsafe sidewalk joints and cracks.
Once a sidewalk area is declared a trip hazard, a price is figured and repair begins almost immediately. Each trip hazard has its own cost for repair.
Some repairs cost as little as $2 to $3 or as much as $70 to $80. But average costs range between $12 and $20, Gardener said.
'Gardner's method of sawing off uneven segments is more time and cost efficient than any method I've seen used in the past,' said David Day, Provo City construction engineer.
Gardner said, 'The secret to our success is our equipment.'
Day said funding for repairs comes from the Community Development Block Grant and other state and local funding.
The project is 95 to 98 percent complete and should be finished by the end of this year, Gardner said.
Day said there are only two major areas in Provo left to upgrade.
These areas include the Sherwood Hills area and the area between the Riverwoods Shopping Center and the Riverside Golf Course, west of University Avenue.
However, Day said this doesn't mean Gardner's work will be finished. Day said that because of ground settling and tree roots pushing up cement slabs, sidewalk levelness is constantly changing.
Gardner said that in one year a tree root could raise a sidewalk joint one full inch. He also said that soggy or soft ground could cause large shifts in sidewalk evenness in shorter periods of time.
Because of this, sidewalks that have been repaired once will need to be rechecked about every three to five years.
Provo City is not the only beneficiary of Gardner's work. BYU and every sidewalk owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Salt Lake to Arizona, as far as the width of the state of Utah, also has sidewalk work done by Amerex.
Paul Reese, a civil engineer in the BYU Planning Department, said he has seen sidewalk repairs on campus done over the past 23 years.
Reese said Gardner has been doing work for BYU for about six years and his methods create the smoothest edges in the quickest amount of time.
Though the trip hazard paragraph was added to the ADA to prevent injury to those who use wheelchairs and canes, Gardener said many people benefit from level sidewalks.
'Snow shovelers, skateboarders, stroller pushers, joggers, runners and cyclists find it easier to use sidewalks that don't have all the bumps and uneven edges,' Gardner said.
Provo's project was started not only because of the ADA, but also because of the safety concerns and potential liability issues.
According to the Provo City Attorney's Office, injuries from trip hazards are handled on a case-by-case basis.
Thus property owners are advised to make sure that if their sidewalks are unsafe, they find out if they need to pay to have repairs done or if the city will cover the costs.