Engineered Solutions: TCAP
Accessible transportation is a civil right. In fact, public agencies that receive federal dollars, including state Departments of Transportation (DOTs), are required to maintain and update an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) transition plan that inventories all ADA deficiencies in their system, identifies physical changes necessary to achieve accessibility, and monitors the progress of those changes. Yet roughly 70% of existing infrastructure, some decades old and even those that are fairly new, fail to meet full federal accessibility requirements, making mobility and transportation difficult for disabled individuals. So, how can we, as engineers, help remedy this situation?
Pape-Dawson is helping the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) achieve its accessibility goals through the development of the TxDOT Comprehensive Accessibility Program (TCAP). TCAP is the first program in the country of this scale designed to perform 100% data collection of the public right of way (ROW), monitor progress, and report expenditures to the public. The program represents our industry’s best effort to put accessibility awareness on a proper footing in project planning and execution to create a truly inclusive transportation system for our community.
TxDOT approached Pape-Dawson with a specific problem: they needed a tool to identify ADA deficiencies, create a method to prioritize where to leverage limited funds, develop projects with a focus on ADA remediation built-in, and report compliance goals to oversight agencies. TCAP satisfies all of those needs by delivering a simple, tangible approach to addressing ADA deficiencies in the public right of way.
One of the challenges the State had when they first tried to accomplish this in the early 2000s was data collection was too subjective and vast, which created confusion over what and where the liabilities resided. Pape-Dawson removed that subjectivity by developing a standard methodology for data collection that provided consistent data and streamlined the collection process. Given ADA compliance is a difficult subject matter to grasp and the scale of ADA deficiencies in public infrastructure systems, we approached the development of TCAP to provide a tool which removes subjectivity while increasing the quality of the data collection speed and process. The custom-made data collection app, which runs on a geospatial-enabled tablet, guides the user through ADA evaluation points and then scripts the workflow for compliance assessment. We then trained users on how to use the app to gather needed data on sidewalks, driveways, and street crossings. From this, we’ve gathered a trove of data that TxDOT can leverage to make more wide-ranging informed decisions.
TCAP helps TxDOT meet the accessibility needs while delivering a more inclusive transportation system. A majority of the disability community is represented by senior citizens, who are a growing portion of the population. Accessible infrastructure like sidewalks, traffic signals, transit boarding, and curb ramps have outsized impact on the disabled community’s daily life services and provide for users to maintain independent living. Providing facilities that are ADA compliant ensures their civil right to operate independently is honored and respected.
TCAP represents a revolutionary approach to project planning and execution for the State of Texas and its vendors for the next 30 to 50 years. Already, every TxDOT project for the next 4 years has been entered into TCAP to ensure ADA deficiencies are reviewed and monitored for completion. As ADA deficiencies and costs to remediate along any corridor become part of the project scope from the earliest planning stages, improving accessibility will necessarily become a greater consideration for project teams throughout the development lifecycle. TCAP’s success will serve as a catalyst for similar programs that will be rolled out by other states in the future, providing a new level of accountability for the use of federal funds and making transportation facilities more accessible for future generations.