After the Asset Management Program Advisory Committee listed sidewalks and ramps high on the city’s list of needed infrastructure repairs, the city of Chula Vista asked residents to weigh-in on a survey to help set the priority for future sidewalks.
The Pedestrian Connectivity and Infrastructure Plan Survey was available through Oct. 9.
The purpose for the survey was to get feedback, comments and hear concerns from the community regarding the city’s pedestrian connectivity, said city engineer Bill Valle.
Valle said the city recently received grant money to develop a Pedestrian Connectivity and Infrastructure Improvement Plan, which involves inspecting, and evaluating the city’s sidewalks, pedestrian ramps and intersection crossings.
As part of the development process, residents were invited to take the community survey to help set priorities to be included in the plan.
“For us, the city, to serve our residents well, we would like to hear from them regarding their thoughts on the existing conditions of the facilities if it’s serving them well or if its not serving them well,” Valle said.
“Whenever we do these kind of surveys, the hope is that we get both feedback where there might be facilities that are in damage and need repair and also feed back on where there is facilities that are potentially missing and to give us some indication if that is a priority location or not,” he said.
Questions the survey asked about identifying locations for improving access for pedestrians and individuals with disabilities, concerns about crosswalk safety and if sidewalks need to be more compliant to the American with Disabilities Act.
Each time the city does a pedestrian project it has to make sure it is in compliance with the ADA. If it’s not, city staff will look at how to make the project compliant or totally redesign the project.
Valle said many of the city’s sidewalks and ramps are very old, spanning more than three decades so they need to be repaired and updated to ADA status.
The city of Chula Vista maintains about 452 centerline miles of paved roadways and approximately 855 linear miles of sidewalk within the city’s 52 square mile area.
For more information call (619) 691-5046 or email at bchopp@chulavistaca.gov.
