2025 Curb Ramp Report

Section 5 of the Decree provides guidelines to calculate the City’s annual ramp commitment. The Decree requires that the City install or remediate an annual average of 1,630 ramps per year from calendar year 2020 to 2030. Figure 1 reflects the City’s ramp production progress relative to its annual Decree commitments from 2021–2025. In 2025, the City constructed 1,723 compliant ramps. Over the past five years, the City constructed 6,448 ramps total, demonstrating an upward trajectory in output despite the deficits incurred in the early years. In addition, this year, the City increased its rate of compliant ramp production from 60% to 80%. This improvement is a direct result of systematic adjustments, training, and support implemented throughout 2025. 

PROWAG 

In 2025, the City began using the accessibility guidelines for Pedestrian Facilities in the Public Right-of-Way (“PROWAG”). PROWAG was developed by the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board under the Americans with Disabilities Act ( “ADA”) and the Architectural Barriers Act (“ABA”). These guidelines were subsequently adopted by the U.S. Department of Transportation (“USDOT”) for public transit. In 2025, the City elected to adopt PROWAG for all of its ramps. PROWAG guidelines provide clarity, design flexibility and introduce modern design standards to better accommodate topographical and subterranean constraints allowing for more effective construction. Class Counsel agreed to the City’s use of PROWAG, marking a significant advancement in the City’s accessibility framework. 

Public Improvement Commission ADA Review 

All changes to the City’s public Right-of-Way (“ROW”) curb line, including those from private development, must be approved by the Public Improvement Commission (“PIC”) in advance of any construction. Curb ramps in the public ROW are often included in development projects processed by PIC. In 2025, an ADA Compliance review was integrated into the PIC plan review process to ensure that plans processed through PIC are designed to PROWAG and 521 CMR standards. This change helped to improve the compliance rate of third-party ramps constructed through development. The ADA Program Manager leads the ADA Compliance review jointly with the Disability Commission. The reviewing team consists of ADA civil design experts who teach construction contractors about accessibility, provide direct rule citations, and offer detailed feedback in comments. This team reviews plans against City standards, 521 CMR, and PROWAG to determine accessibility design compliance, alignment with reciprocal ramps, and feasibility of actualizing construction. The project proponent is provided with comments, like those shown in Figure 2. The proponent must comply with comments from the ADA Compliance review in order to receive a grant of approval by PIC. 

Return of Deposit Inspections 

The City’s ADA Compliance Team oversees the inspection of all sidewalk permit holders seeking a return of deposit. A sidewalk permit and deposit is required for all sidewalk construction. This year, approximately eighty (80) compliant ramps were captured through third-party contractors. When curbs are non-compliant, the City’s team works with the third-party contractor and the permitted entity so that the necessary work is completed and the deposit may be returned. 

In 2025, the City continued to efficiently maintain the Curb Ramp Request system and successfully resolved the highest number of requests to date. The Curb Ramp Request System has received 282 total requests to date and has resolved 173 of requests, of which 101 were closed out due to inapplicability or insufficient request data. In 2025, sixty-three (63) curb ramp requests were received and twenty-nine (29) requests were resolved through reconstruction. 

Presently, 109 requests remain pending resolution, of which seventeen (17) are undergoing engineering design; eleven (11) are pending a safety study; fifty-five (55) are scheduled for construction; twenty-three (23) are in an active phase of construction, which was interrupted by the winter construction moratorium; and three (3) are pending further information from the requestor. The City remains committed to ensuring that these requests are evaluated in a timely manner, designed and constructed in alignment with operational priorities and accessibility goals, and are properly considered for variance eligibility.

Accomplishments

During FY25 Q3, the Streets Cabinet, in partnership with the City’s ADA compliance project management contractor, Stantec, successfully completed the full transition of pavement, sidewalk, and ADA ramp condition data into the City’s ArcGIS Enterprise environment. This work positions the City for long-term control, governance, and future migration into Cartegraph, a geospatial interactive asset and work management platform. 

This initiative was launched to consolidate all Stantec-generated condition assessment data—previously stored and managed in external systems—into the City’s centralized geospatial environment. The project required the full recreation and automation of the “Ramp Wizard” workflows that support ADA ramp design specifications and programmatic planning. Stantec rebuilt and automated all Ramp Wizard dashboards, schemas, and workflows, first within their internal ArcGIS instance, and then fully replicated and deployed them within the City of Boston’s ArcGIS Enterprise environment.

Building out asset management in the City’s own GIS environment both strengthened the City’s technical foundation and created new opportunities for smarter planning, better coordination, and long-term system integration. With this work complete, the City is well-positioned to continue building a more unified, data-driven geospatial environment for ramp planning. This project marks a major step forward in modernizing the City’s asset management capabilities.

Construction Planning

In 2025, the City used four (4) Sidewalk Area Contracts, one (1) Brick On Call contract, one (1) Concrete On Call contract, and three (3) Asphalt Resurfacing Program (ARP) contracts to support its construction work for ramps. These contracts operated in tandem to maximize efficiency and impact. The City prioritized layout and design in the early part of the construction season and executed the planned work in the latter half. This approach allowed the City to operationalize curb ramp reconstruction across all contracts by completing advance design and construction preparation activities, including surveying and sidewalk grade marking, across an entire defined geographic area using the same construction crew prior to the start of construction. This process also improved efficiency, enabled a coordinated and cohesive construction season, and provided early site intelligence necessary to proactively address and mitigate issues encountered during construction.

Spatial Asset Management

In the future, the City aims to enhance its spatial asset management for City sidewalks with a dashboard to inventory physical assets and facilitate the collection, analysis, and reporting of asset condition data. The dashboard will support strategic decision-making, help prioritize investments, and enable transparent communication with the public. In tandem, the City seeks to establish a robust sidewalk asset inventory and condition assessment process that aligns with accessibility goals, equity priorities, and maintenance needs. The system will help identify high-need areas and guide resource allocation for maintenance and the City’s capital programs.

Staffing Update

Despite the City’s improvements in its ramp reconstruction, the City’s Construction Management Division continues to experience long term staffing difficulties. This team maintains a position inventory of 26 engineering roles, of which 10 positions remain unfilled. The 40% vacancy rate made actualizing ramp commitments demanding throughout the year. The City intends to continue improving recruitment and retention of construction management professionals to efficiently deliver essential accessibility projects.

Training   

Beginning in 2025, the City implemented a comprehensive training program for the Streets Cabinet Design and Construction Management Divisions. This new training program allows the City to ensure that design and construction standards are implemented consistently and effectively. These efforts include hands-on workshops, detailed design guidance manuals, and site-specific field training to translate PROWAG standards into real-world applications. By investing in training, the City is not only enhancing internal capacity but also ensuring that ramps constructed under this framework meet both legal requirements and best-practice accessibility standards. This structured approach positions the City to achieve compliance efficiently while improving accessibility outcomes for the public.

In addition to internal staff training, the City trained contractors and all third-parties responsible for implementing ROW infrastructure. This training program included mandatory orientation sessions on PROWAG standards, detailed technical guidance, and ongoing support to ensure consistent application of accessibility requirements across all projects. By providing contractors with clear expectations, practical tools, and hands-on instruction, the City strengthened oversight, reduced the risk of noncompliant ramps, and fostered a shared commitment to high-quality, accessible construction throughout the ROW. These efforts were critical to translating PROWAG’s standards into tangible, on-the-ground improvements in every neighborhood.

Increased Cost of Construction Update

The costs associated with design, support, materials, labor, construction, construction management, and asset management have risen significantly in recent years. In 2021, ramp construction was estimated at approximately $5,000 per ramp. A detailed review of invoices from the 2024 and 2025 construction seasons showed average ramp construction costs ranging from roughly $7,000 to $14,600 per ramp.