Letter to the editor: Shoddy sidewalks

To the editor:

There has been continuing discussion about sidewalk repair. I am for good, safe, properly constructed sidewalks. However, I have a problem with a blanket decision to require homeowners to foot the repair bill under some circumstances. Many damaged sidewalks show signs of improper construction. For example, I have noticed depressions and offsets in the the sidewalk grade precisely where sidewalks were poured onto fill dirt over buried utilities and next to street drains. In fact, I tripped and fell when my shoe hooked onto the displaced sidewalk at one of those locations. Noncompacted fill dirt will always settle.

When concrete with properly installed interior steel mesh rebar is poured onto undisturbed soil, it generally will not buckle and sink. But, poured onto soil that was simply filled into a previous excavation, the sidewalk will always settle and sink, forming dangerous trip points. If that fill soil under a sidewalk were properly compacted with known standards following code requirements of optimum water content with proper compaction techniques, it probably will never sink and displace.

To expect a homeowner to pay for repair and/or replace such a defective sidewalk when the city was originally involved with its construction and inspection is totally out of line and unfair. If the city is going to get tough on this issue, it had better upgrade its construction codes with proper soil compaction specifications and concrete rebar and hydration requirements to ensure that future sidewalks will be predictably stable.