Disability Technology & News

RiverWalk now Accessible

When will the city, archetitects, and planners realize it never pays to shirk ADA requirements. This could have have been avoided if accessible & universal designs were incorporated when they first constructed Riverwalk.

$1.5 million plan adds access to RiverWalk
By GREG J. BOROWSKI
Posted: May 1, 2006

The City of Milwaukee has reached an agreement with the federal government to make $1.5 million in changes to the downtown RiverWalk so it will be more accessible to people in wheelchairs or with disabilities.

The agreement, approved Monday by a Common Council committee, will split the cost between the city and businesses in the area, with the city paying about $1.17 million, or 78%.

The office of U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic began looking into the issue after it received a complaint in August 2003 that portions of the walkway were not adequately accessible, as required under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

During talks with the federal government, the city made some changes to the walkway, which was built at a total cost of about $18.4 million. The agreement specifies what else needs to be done to avoid a federal lawsuit.

“I think we’ve reached a great solution to some of the challenges that were presented by the original RiverWalk construction,” said Rocky Marcoux, head of the Department of City Development.

He noted that the changes would also benefit people pushing strollers, not just those with “mobility impairments.”

The agreement calls for five elevator lifts and three ramps to be built within a three-year period, Marcoux said. Other ramps would be modified, as would some handrails and some gangways to docks.

After engineering work is done, some construction could begin this fall.

The council’s Judiciary and Legislation Committee approved the agreement Monday, 4-0. It goes to the full council May 9 and is expected to pass.

The group IndependenceFirst filed the complaint in 2003, saying the walkway violated the 1990 federal law aimed at making public buildings and sites accessible to those with disabilities.

City officials noted at the time that parts of the walkway were built independently before 1990 and some of it is privately owned. The settlement, like the complaint, covers parts of the walkway downtown, not the recent extension in the nearby Historic Third Ward.

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