The City of Olympia has had identified 28,000 unique sidewalk issues across 226 linear miles of streets, revealing a need for accessibility improvements.
According to Max DeJarnatt, senior planner with the Community Plan and Economic Development (CPED) and Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) staff liaison, the city contracted with a walk-based firm.
He said the researchers walked every mile of the sidewalk, using field mapping technology to document infrastructure issues. Each identified problem was logged into a Geographic Information System (GIS) database, with specific characteristics and severity ratings assigned.
Tobi Hill-Meyer briefly discussed the sidewalk assessment in her presentation of the city's Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility efforts at the BPAC meeting on Wednesday, March 19.
Hill-Meyer is Olympia's new ADA and accessibility coordinator.
Some sidewalk issues mentioned include panel uplifts or surface irregularities, cracks and obstructions.
"They each had a severity rating that will help prioritize the work going forward," said Hill-Meyer to the committee members.
DeJarnatt will present detailed information about the sidewalk condition assessment in May.
The sidewalk assessment is part of the city's ADA transition plan, which was completed in 2021 through a self-evaluation process — nearly three decades after the federal deadline for such plans passed in 1992.
The transition plan identified accessibility barriers across city infrastructure, mapping out potential challenges for individuals with disabilities.
It provides a strategic roadmap for achieving full ADA compliance, featuring cost estimates, implementation timelines and a prioritized approach to addressing accessibility issues.
In addition, Hill-Meyer highlighted the city's approach to addressing programmatic barriers that could restrict accessibility. The initiative includes appointing a point person in each department to help address accommodation requests and improve cross-department communication on accessibility issues.
With a mandate to meet the updated Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) by April 2026, Hill-Meyer said the city is facing a critical digital transformation accessibility.
She explained this will require cultural shifts within the city, including staff training to create accessible documents, ensuring videos have captions and spoken descriptions of all visual content, and working with third-party vendors to meet new accessibility standards.
Hill-Meyer also discussed efforts to enhance OlyConnects, the city's existing online request platform.
She said a new feature is being developed to allow residents to submit accessibility accommodation requests directly through the portal. This feature will enable the city to track requests, identify trends and demonstrate service usage during budget planning discussions.
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TheVirtualOne
Hold on to your wallets. Get ready for a tax increase.
Thursday, March 20 Report this
Southsoundguy
Waste of time and money.
Thursday, March 20 Report this
jimlazar
As a regular walker, I've experienced many of the sidewalk irregularities that plague our City.
Many are caused by poor preparation and installation of the wrong type of street tree. For example, at Briggs Village, less than 20 year old sidewalks are upheaving, because the wrong trees were installed. At a minimum, the City should stop any more of these, by more carefully reviewing builder plans and inspecting the sidewalk preparation, tree installation, and concrete pours, to make sure we don't get more of these with new sidewalks in new developments.
Some are simply very old sidewalks -- those in the South Capitol neighborhood are 100 years old. There are still horse rings in places on the sidewalk in Downtown Olympia.
The City has taken two important steps. First, in 2023, the City Council dedicated a portion of the Transportation Benefit District sales tax funds to sidewalk repair. Second, it contracted for this survey of conditions, and can now identify the most critical elements -- tripping hazards and areas without curb ramps.
The next step is for the City to hire one or two crews with the newly dedicated money to work full-time on fixing the existing deficiencies. They can work from one neighborhood to the next. They should start with the deficiencies that have received complaints from the public -- I know there are dozens or hundreds of these.
I hope that the City makes the consultant report available to the public in an easy-to-access format.
Walking is the #1 form of active recreation in Olympia. It's important that we make it safe and convenient.
Thursday, March 20 Report this
Quadlok
Hopefully they force the businesses and homeowners whos' terrible landscaping choices have caused many of these problems to pay for the fixes. How it's been left to fester for over 30 years is beyond me.
Thursday, March 20 Report this
Chappellg
As per usual, those who don’t want to improve lives and safety for others complain. Like retired folks with grown or no kids don’t want to pay for schools, these people don’t want to protect vulnerable citizens. Obviously they don’t have a relative in a wheelchair or who has impaired walking ability. And presumably they don’t believe that the government is responsible for helping all its residents. Of course, they don’t mind using our government-funded roads, airports and the like!
Shame
Friday, March 21 Report this
TomBoucher
Good work figuring out where we're at. Olympia sidewalks really are something else! And in my age group 15% have mobility issues and that rises to 30% 75+. Not my family, always been regular walkers. (For the naysayers, now like everything--everything--else in government, prioritize the worst first and see how far we get.)
Friday, March 21 Report this
Virge13
I like to walk in downtown Olympia. I don’t have a disability but I am getting older and my mobility is important to me. Well maintained sidewalks and other walking/wheeling areas ensures no accidents happen. I’m proud our city government is prioritizing making these areas safer for everyone.
Friday, March 21 Report this
Westside
@Southsoundguy:
When will you provide us with useful information or insights that could benefit your community about the articles in the Jolt?
The City is at risk from lawsuits due to these barriers. Would you rather the City pay out and fix the problems or fix the problems before lawsuits?
I would prefer the City take action and fix the problems rather than pay out expensive lawsuits and money court and lawyers’ fees.
Not sure that investing in understanding how to have decent sidewalks is a “waste of time and money”.
Friday, March 21 Report this
BillString
Ah yes, the city who still can't decide who has to take care of the sidewalks. Costs too much? It's the property owner's problem! Paid for by taxpayers? Sure the city will fix it.....if they get around to it. And ONLY if the fix honors a special interest group.
Friday, March 21 Report this
KarenM
Since between 25 and 30% of us do not drive, sidewalks are simply basic infrastructure. They are critical for safe walking to school, the bus, shopping, and recreation.
Friday, March 21 Report this
Angelinoly1234
I am disabled and I was walking to the store one evening last November . Thank god I had my phone with me because I stubbed my foot into a broken sidewalk and fell to the ground with my knees and hands , wrists taking the force of my fall . I thought I had broken my wrists . I was stuck laying on the wet pavement in pain because of my disability I was unable to get up off the ground until I was picked up by a friend who was a few houses away. The sidewalk was uplifted at least 2 inches in the broken spot . I called the city to tell them about it and they told me it was not the city’s responsibility to maintain it since it was a side street next to an apartment complex . I was pretty sore and bruised up but ok . The next person might not be as lucky as me
Saturday, March 22 Report this
HotTractor
It's good for the community and people to establish a comprehensive systematic alternative transportation system, not just dump endless amounts of money into car/truck infrastructures. There are people who don't drive and most of us could use the exercise and social activity of interacting with other walker/bike riders.
Saturday, March 22 Report this
Wilkie
Could the "walk-based firm" use some local volunteer or part-time walkers to contribute continuing sidewalk data?
Saturday, March 22 Report this