photo by: Bremen Keasey

A broken section of sidewalk is pictured in July 2024 in East Lawrence.

Evan Korynta thinks about sidewalks all the time.

In 2007, Korynta was diagnosed with a rare soft tissue cancer. Unsuccessful chemotherapy treatments led to his left leg, hip and the left side of his pelvis being amputated. Although Korynta has been cancer-free since June 2007, he has used a left leg prosthetic and a wheelchair since then.

That limits his ability to navigate through all parts of town. Minor pains for other Lawrencians can become barriers to his movement throughout the city. A sidewalk square raised too high, a light pole built into a sidewalk that shrinks the size of the path, a curb with steps down to the street. Korynta said, like other people in Lawrence who have mobility issues, he has to plan his day around those barriers, looking for routes where he can go safely.

Korynta also works as the city’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance administrator, where a big part of his role has been focusing on helping improve the city’s sidewalks to make them more accessible and safe. Since 2021, Korynta and a team of city staff have helped develop the ADA Public Right-of-Way Transition Plan for Lawrence. On Tuesday night, the City Commission approved the 20-year, $103 million plan that will bring the city’s pedestrian areas up to ADA standards.

Korynta said although it will greatly benefit people like him who have a disability, improving all paths across the city is a plan that is well overdue and will greatly benefit everyone.

“I think it’s a huge need for our community,” Korynta said. “Everyone wants good, accessible, safe infrastructure.”

photo by: Bremen Keasey

More parts of Lawrence will soon receive ADA-accessible sidewalk improvements like these.

When the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, federal requirements made it mandatory for municipalities across the country that their facilities, services and programs be accessible to everyone. Initially, the focus of the requirements was on making buildings and other facilities ADA-compliant, Korynta said. It wasn’t until a couple of decisions in federal courts in the early 2000s that ADA compliance also became an issue for sidewalks and other “right-of-way infrastructure,” or things built for pedestrians.

Korynta said Lawrence, and many other municipalities across the country, “kicked the can down the road” for converting sidewalks to be compliant. Of the city’s 400 miles of sidewalks, 280 miles — 70% — need to be repaired or replaced to meet accessibility requirements, with 92 miles of sidewalk needing full replacement. 4,500 of the city’s 6,000 curb ramps also need to be repaired or replaced to fit ADA standards.

“We have such a backlog of maintenance and have areas in town that you can’t even travel on, especially if you’re a person with a disability,” Korynta said.

With the passage of the Transition Plan, there will be a lot more money set aside to work to fix the sidewalks. The city already set aside in its Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) about $1,928,000 per year for repairing or replacing sidewalks. The passage of this plan approves allocating an additional $2,588,000 per year to the CIP. That funding alongside $657,750 in property owner cost partnering would tally up to a total of $5,173,750 per year.

Korynta said the property owner cost partnership is something that was used with the Sidewalk Improvement Plan (SIP) which started in 2019. Korynta said they’ll take that cost partnering model and “roll it into” the ADA Transition Plan. He estimates the city will still cover about 85% of the cost to fix sidewalks.

Jake Baldwin, an engineering program manager with the Municipal Service and Operations Department who has worked with the SIP, said the team’s main goal was to fix tripping hazards — like vertical separation, where one panel is higher than another, or cracking of panels — in sidewalks.

From 2019 to now, various improvement plans in the city have created approximately 19 miles of ADA-accessible sidewalks and shared-use paths. Baldwin said the SIP team repaired about 10.4 miles of sidewalks while mostly working on “spot repairs” on smaller sections of mostly intact sidewalks.

But because of the small scope and budget, Baldwin said areas with much more damage were set aside to be fixed later. With the ADA Transition Plan in place, Baldwin said those blocks of sidewalks will be taken care of.

“Now under the transition plan we can tackle those,” Baldwin said. We’re going to get the oldest and worst sidewalks in town fixed, and that is going to be really important for the community.”

Korynta said those initial programs laid the foundation for the ADA Transition Plan, and combining all the sidewalk plans under one roof will help the project be more proactive in fixing the sidewalks.

As the process of replacing and repairing starts, Korynta said the city will use a wide variety of factors to find out which routes to prioritize. Paths in the worst condition, paths that lead to places with high pedestrian demand like schools or government facilities and paths in areas where people are more likely to use public transit are all evaluated to see what the city should prioritize. Korynta said the city already evaluated much of the city’s routes, using LIDAR technology to assess the sidewalks.

There are challenges to some of the repairs. Lawrence’s hills can create slopes that don’t meet the ADA requirement of a maximum slope of 5% incline. Ohio Street, for example, has a 17% incline. While the ADA has some exceptions to allow for matching the “maximum extent possible,” hills can make this transition process “tricky,” Korynta said. Some areas might need retaining walls or significant grading, but Korynta said those issues will change year to year.

“There’s a lot of variables looking at this,” Korynta said.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

This sidewalk on Kasold Drive runs along a retaining wall.

Even with all the challenges, Korynta noted that resident feedback has emphasized the need for the city to repair its sidewalks: Even during public surveys that weren’t about infrastructure, residents expressed concerns about the condition of the sidewalks.

Baldwin recalled, too, that when City Manager Craig Owens first started working in Lawrence, Owens told him he could barely walk to work because of problems with the sidewalks. With the united effort of the transition plan and the increase in funding, the city will be able to take action faster.

“Everyone who calls in and complains about sidewalks, we’re going to be able to finally address them in a holistic manner,” Baldwin said.

For 17 of the 18 years Korynta has lived in Lawrence, he has seen the need for improved accessibility of sidewalks, not just in his work, but in his day-to-day life. Korynta said that it’s improved in major city arteries, but there’s still a big need in residential areas. This plan makes steps to do this not only for people with disabilities, but for everyone.

“It’s a big project that is long overdue. It’s time we make that investment for our community,” Korynta said.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

A brick sidewalk in July 2024 in East Lawrence.