Why is there a pole in the middle of the sidewalk?
When Science of the City began investigating barriers that people with disabilities face, neighbors mentioned inaccessible buildings, such as the Hyattsville Post Office on Gallatin Street. We also discovered months-long elevator outages at the municipal building on Gallatin Street and at the pedestrian bridge over East–West Highway at the Hyattsville Crossing Metro station.
When it comes to sidewalks, broken pavement and missing curb cuts can create significant accessibility issues. However, neighbors most frequently complained about another accessibility challenge: utility poles and fire hydrants blocking sidewalks.
Local resident Tatjana Hrubik-Vulanovic wrote, “How did the utility poles and/or fire hydrants that are in the middle of some sidewalks get there? Also, should underground utility lines be considered instead of the poles and lines that represent a huge hazard during every storm?”
Poles or hydrants blocking sidewalks are common all over Hyattsville. This column specifically focuses on the Pepco utility poles protruding through sidewalks on Gallatin Street between Route 1 and 42nd Avenue, and on the sidewalks along 42nd Avenue between Jefferson and Farragut streets. Are these poles violating the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)? And if they are, why does the City of Hyattsville allow Pepco to get away with it?
Courts have generally recognized that municipal sidewalks are considered a government program, service, or activity and must be accessible to people with disabilities under laws such as the ADA, Gabriel Rubinstein, managing attorney at Disability Rights Maryland, told the Life & Times (L&T). Sidewalks are supposed to have a minimum clearance width, be continuous, and unobstructed.
Rubinstein’s organization was one of the parties in a lawsuit in which Susan Goodlaxson, two other plaintiffs with disabilities, and the IMAGE Center of Maryland successfully sued the City of Baltimore because too many sidewalks were damaged, blocked, or lacking curb cuts, the small ramps graded down from the sidewalk to the street. The resulting partial consent agreement requires Baltimore to spend $45 million to $50 million to remedy the situation.
Rubinstein explained that a utility pole that makes the public sidewalk wheelchair impassable would generally be considered a violation of the ADA. However, there may sometimes be legal, practical, and political reasons why it would be complicated to have them removed.
Hyattsville Public Information Officer Cindy Zork explained three reasons. First, the city does not have the legal authority or technical expertise to move one of Pepco’s poles. Second, responsibility for maintaining sidewalks belongs to the entity with authority over the road, and many major streets are not under city jurisdiction. For example, Route 1 is a Maryland state highway. Finally, many of the utility poles were there before the sidewalks.
This last point is critical. Both sidewalks and utility poles exist in easements, or public rights of way, over private or public property that ends at the street. Some of Pepco’s utility easements were granted as early as 1906, before the installation of many, if not most, of Hyattsville’s sidewalks.
When the Life & Times contacted Pepco about the specific poles blocking sidewalks on Gallatin Street and 42nd Avenue, spokesman Rodney Wilson wrote back and said that many of the poles involved stood for decades and were originally installed according to construction standards and permits of that time. In some cases, sidewalks were added after the poles were already in place.
Some of the newer, often taller and thicker, green-colored poles were installed after 2012 as part of a reliability upgrade, but they are usually in the same utility easement as the original poles.
Wilson continued that when requested by local agencies and where feasible, Pepco relocates poles to improve accessibility while maintaining the safety and reliability of the electric system. In cases where relocation is not practical due to construction complexities, Pepco explores alternatives such as sidewalk modifications to meet ADA requirements.
Wilson also said that no requests have been made for these specific locations. This is significant because, according to Rubinstein, enforcement of the ADA is complaint driven. In general, even if something is out of compliance, remediation will not occur until someone files a complaint or lawsuit.
What adaptations prevent utility poles from blocking sidewalks? In the 3800 block of Rhode Island Avenue, the sidewalk makes a half circle around a utility pole. Another pole in the 4300 block has two long extensions at the top, allowing the overhead electrical wires to continue in a straight line while the pole itself is offset several feet to clear the sidewalk. These types of solutions are only possible when there is enough space between a building and the curb.
How about undergrounding all the city’s power lines? The process may be so expensive and disruptive that it is not feasible. Burying the lines in the street would disrupt traffic for years, and burying them in the planting strip would threaten the community’s tree canopy.
Burying the lines might also be considered wasteful or counterproductive now that Pepco has invested millions of dollars to improve its reliability as a condition of its 2013 merger with Exelon. According to Wilson, 2024 was Pepco’s most reliable year on record, with outages reduced by about 57 percent over the past 10 years. When outages did occur, the average restoration time was only 39 minutes.
Removing or relocating one or even a few utility poles can sometimes be a very complicated process, depending on the circumstances, Rubinstein said. Ensuring safe and accessible sidewalks typically requires a city to work with utility companies and the community to develop a coordinated plan for proper modifications, repairs, and maintenance that meet accessibility standards for people with disabilities.
Paul Ruffins is a citizen scientist and a professor of curiosity.