Consultant: Indian Trail assessment finds nearly 14,000 technical ADA barriers; council to get implementation plan in July

A consultant presenting an Americans with Disabilities Act assessment to the Indian Trail Town Council on Tuesday said field teams found 13,968 barriers across 24 miles of right-of-way and three parks and recommended a multi-year transition plan to address them.

Kevin McDaniel, a senior project manager with Precision Infrastructure Management, told the council the count includes many small, technical defects such as cross-slope, vertical displacement and missing curb ramps. “That is very common,” McDaniel said of the 13,968 figure, adding that multiple individual measurements can create many apparent “barriers” at a single location.

The report covered sidewalks, curb ramps, crosswalks and three town facilities (town hall, sheriff’s office and one other building the team inspected). McDaniel said the firm identified 71 barriers inside the inspected buildings and nearly 9,840 instances of vertical height displacement along the public way. He described examples in the presentation: raised sidewalk panels that create trip hazards, poles placed within sidewalks that block required clear width, ponding at curb ramps and sidewalks narrower than the recommended 48-inch clear width for passing.

Why it matters: Indian Trail has reached a municipal-sized threshold that brings certain ADA responsibilities into sharper focus, council members and staff said. Town Manager Michael McLaurin told the council staff will study the report and return in July with requested budget figures and a proposed FY26 approach to begin work on priority items.

What the consultant recommended: McDaniel recommended the council adopt a transition plan and prioritize fixes that restore access to buildings and services first. He highlighted an approach he called “alternative maintenance activities” for many instances of vertical height displacement and some curb ramp defects: grinding and reusing existing concrete or cutting and resetting ramp surfaces rather than full replacement. McDaniel said that approach frequently reduces costs compared with full removal and replacement.

Cost and timing: The presentation included high-end cost estimates from the consultant’s software; McDaniel said those are conservative and intended for budgeting because labor and material inflation are hard to predict. He and staff said some fixes could be completed by town maintenance crews, while others will require contractor work. McLaurin told the council the town is looking at a five-year right-of-way plan and roughly a 10-year horizon for larger improvements, and that work likely will be spread across multiple fiscal years as part of FY26 budget planning.

Legal context: McDaniel noted that the U.S. Department of Justice’s enforcement posture emphasizes having and following a documented transition plan rather than immediate perfection. He described prior municipal settlements in which the federal government accepted long-term transition timelines when a credible plan and milestones existed.

Next steps: Staff and the consultant will provide the full written report to council members and return in July with a recommended budget request for FY26 and a prioritized list of barriers staff believe can be fixed in-house versus those that require contracting.

Ending: Council members emphasized the work is large but manageable and that the town should strike a balance between immediate safety fixes and longer-term capital work.