Sidewalk repairs - little things add up

Here'a a big THANK YOU to Charlotte DOT (CDOT) for recently repairing a sidewalk curb in Eastway-Sheffield Park - it's a little thing, but little things add up to bigger things.  Sidewalks are an essential piece of transportation infrastructure, so keeping them in good repair is a cost-effective way of ensuring they serve pedestrians for a long time.  In fact, the sidewalk in question has been doing so since the early 1950s, so a minor patch-job 64 years later is a pretty good maintenance-run!

I noticed the offending curb while walking my dog, noting that it was a) a potential pedestrian tripping hazard b) disrupting stormwater drainage along the curbline c) just looked plain ugly.  I filed an online 311 report and a couple of weeks later, I got a phone call from a CDOT street repair crew looking for the broken curbs.  I was luckily nearby, so I met them and showed them the jutting curbs, which quickly received hi-viz orange paint on March 25 (below).  And course, it was cold and rainy that day, appropriate for the "Before" conditions.

I'm not sure when the repairs occurred, but I noticed them this past Monday, April 21, so in few weeks turnaround time, the curbline's been repaired with an asphalt patch (photos below) and it's now sunny for the "After" photo.  That's the trick for documenting urban planning/transportation improvements - take the "Before" images in dreary weather, and no matter the scale of the improvement, sunny weather makes the "After" image 110% better!  It's not the fanciest-looking curb, but it sure is safer and more functional now. And nice job on beveling the curb near the driveway!  If you call/log online 311, this is proof that it works and can keep Charlotte a great place to live!

Repaired curbs, 1037 Norland Rd., see image below for more detail

An asphalt patch can make a difference between pedestrians tripping/poor drainage and a safer sidewalk/street!