Riverside will be repaving Fourth Street in the coming year, but the differences in elevation from one side to the other will pose problems, particularly with meeting Americans With Disability Act requirements.

City Engineer Scott Pottorff of MMS Consultants said there are provisions in the federal disability requirements for exemptions due to terrain.

“I don’t want to gloss over the ADA piece of it,” Mayor Allen Schneider said during a City Council work session on Nov. 25. “Just because we have terrain to deal with, I want to make it as practical as possible.”

ADA requirements call for crosswalks to be a maximum 5% grade. The grade at Rose Street is 6%, and the grade at Greene Street is 8% to 10%. Pottorff said some of the grade along the street approach 15%.

“This project, when I looked at it, I had flashbacks to Ella Street,” Pottorff said. “You can see how one side is quite a bit higher than the other.”

The renovated Fourth Street will be 31 feet wide. The project will run from Highway 22 but will stop short of Greene Street.

Trees that are in the right of way, or too close to it, will be removed.

The plan is to have estimated costs on the project by the Dec. 16 council meeting, approve plans in January and send a request for bids in February.

Construction would start in spring, Pottorff said.

Prior to approving the project, Councilperson Tom Sexton suggested the council have a meeting where members walk along the route looking for potential issues based on experiences from previous projects.

“If we could do that, I’d like to do that,” Sexton said.