Sidewalk buckles and blowups can be tripping hazard

Chuck Graham lost the use of his legs in a car crash when he was 16. Years later, he uses a wheelchair and likes to get exercise by wheeling to work.

“Columbia’s blessed to have a lot of good trails,” he said. “One of them is between Green Meadows and my office, which is about two miles.”

But his usual route, off Providence and Southampton roads is a bit broken up because of a sidewalk buckle.

He said, because of that, he has to find another route.

“At that point, it would include going down a frontage road or a street to be able to get around,” he said. “It’s hard to see folks in [wheel]chairs if they’re out in the street.”

A viewer had contacted ABC 17 News to find out why some of the sidewalk buckles around town had not been fixed yet. Graham, who is also the chair of the Columbia Disabilities Commission, said that, if people don’t let Columbia Public Works crews know where the blowups are, the crews can’t fix them.

“Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the city has agreed that there’s a break in the sidewalk or a path of travel that’s more than a quarter of an inch, Public Works will come out and fix that,” said Graham.

The phone number for the Columbia Call Center is 573-874-2489.

Public Works spokesman Barry Dalton said that, sometimes, the adjacent property owner is responsible for fixing a buckled or broken sidewalk.