Flowline grades that actually drain, and accessible routes that survive an inspection.
Each line below is a scope we bid, schedule, and pour ourselves. Open one for specifications, sequencing, and the questions worth asking before award.
Curb and gutter isn't edging. It's a drainage structure that happens to be made of concrete. Every foot of it exists to catch sheet flow coming off a lot and move it to an inlet without letting it stand, and the surface doing that work is the flowline, a narrow strip at the bottom of the gutter pan. Hold its grade and a lot drains itself for decades. Miss it by a few hundredths across a long run and you own a puddle that freezes every night from November through March.
Accessibility work rides on the same crew, because ramps, landings, and curb returns are where a pedestrian route crosses that drainage structure. Which is why so many older Front Range properties fail here. The ramp got built to match the curb rather than the other way around. This page covers curb and gutter, ADA ramps, and concrete curbing.
Standing water on a lot is rarely a mystery. Somebody shot the flowline off a plan elevation without checking what the asphalt actually does, or a section got replaced years later and matched to the adjacent curb face instead of the pan. Either way the fall goes flat somewhere, and water finds it immediately.
We survey the existing flowline before we quote a replacement, walking elevations along the whole run rather than pulling two points and interpolating. That survey answers the question that sets the price: does this need a longer section of curb rebuilt to restore fall, does it need an inlet, or is the real problem out in the asphalt where two overlays buried the pan?
Puddles look cosmetic. They aren't. Water sitting against a joint gets into the base, freezes, lifts the panel, and turns a drainage complaint into a trip hazard.
| Method | Where it earns its keep | What it can't do |
|---|---|---|
| Machine extruded | Long straight runs and easy radii on open lots with room to track a stringline | Hold tight radii, or work in a lot still full of parked cars |
| Hand formed | Returns, tight radii, ADA transitions, short replacement sections, and every tie-in to existing curb | Match extruded production on long runs, so a whole lot done by hand costs more per foot |
| Slip formed | New construction with thousands of feet and uninterrupted site access | Justify its mobilization on a repair package or a phased HOA program |
| Decorative curbing | Landscape beds, medians, and islands where the curb is a boundary, not a drainage element | Carry vehicle impact or serve as a flowline, so it belongs away from drive lanes |
Anyone can pour a straight run. A curb return at a drive entrance is a different animal, because the radius, the flowline, the curb face height, and whatever ramp lands inside it all have to resolve at the same point. The face has to taper from full height down to flush across the ramp width. The pan has to keep falling through the whole turn. And the gutter cross slope right where the ramp toes in has to stay gentle enough that a wheelchair doesn't get pushed sideways.
Miss any one of those and the others look wrong. A return that's a half inch high at the flush point catches every hand truck on the property. A pan that goes flat through the radius holds water on the exact square yard people step on. So we form returns by hand and check them with a level before the truck ever arrives.
We'll walk the property, measure slopes and widths at every ramp, and hand you a written scope priced per foot and per unit. Call (303) 569-4046.
Federal accessibility standards set the numbers: a running slope no steeper than 1:12, cross slope no steeper than 1:48, a clear width of at least 36 inches, landings at least 60 inches deep, and detectable warnings at the transition into vehicular traffic. Those numbers haven't moved in a long time. What moves is the property around them.
Three things account for most of what we replace. Asphalt overlays raise the lot without touching the concrete, so the gutter pan climbs and the ramp toe ends up below it, creating a counter slope that pushes a chair backward. Expansive clay lifts one flare or drops one landing, and a cross slope that started compliant no longer is. And plenty of older ramps were built to a looser standard, or none, and nobody measured them again until a complaint arrived.
Requirements can also be layered by state and local amendments and by your own site standards. Confirm what applies with your building department before the scope gets locked.
Half the ramps we tear out were fine the day they were poured. Then the lot got overlaid twice, the pan came up an inch above the ramp toe, and now the thing pushes a wheelchair backward into traffic.
Our curb and flatwork crew
Still unsure about something?
Call the crew at (303) 569-4046 and we will talk it through.
Send drawings or a site address and we will walk it, mark the scope, and return a written per-unit breakdown.
Accessibility
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