The Kleingers Group is proud to be both a sponsor and to help plan the 2016 Safe Routes to School National Conference.

The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC), the Safe Routes to School National Partnership and the National Center for Safe Routes to School recently announced that the 2016 conference will be held April 5 to 7 in Columbus, Ohio.

Since 2012, The Kleingers Group has served as one of just a few Safe Routes to School Statewide Consultants to the Ohio Department of Transportation and has worked on more than 4 dozen Safe Routes to School (SRTS) projects throughout the state.

The Kleingers Group is a leader in creating both school travel plans and infrastructure design, creating safe and convenient opportunities for children to walk or bicycle to school.

According to the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, the conference will bring together program representatives, state departments of transportation, planners, elected officials and community members to provide an opportunity for individuals, agencies and organization involved with Safe Routes to School to network, engage in educational opportunities, become inspired, and form partnerships.

The Kleingers Group is proud to sponsor the partnership’s goal of creating safer and more walkable communities and to share its traffic safety expertise.

More information about the conference is available at www.saferoutesconference.org.

The Kleingers Group’s commitment to site accessibility goes beyond the design. The Kleingers designers take unique measures to get a better understanding of how the end-user benefits from their design.

Recently, members of The Kleingers Group transportation team spent an afternoon with visually impaired residents and their guide dogs in the Columbus area. The team was split into two groups and paired with a blind individual, their sight dog, a cane, and blindfolds. Team members were then given the opportunity to experience the end-user. Members were blindfolded and given simple instructions to utilize their given tools (guide dog or cane) to navigate around a city block. Through the experience, team members were able to gain a new perspective about how end-users experience their design in real life and how everything in the design from curb ramps to accessible pedestrian signals to street conditions is important. This experience has helped our transportation engineers become more mindful of their design and how it impacts daily users.

For the Leblond Regional RecPlex project, our engineers were given the opportunity to design a recreation facility for individuals with and without disabilities. The team looked for opportunities to exceed ADA requirements for the project. The end result was a facility with accessibility to nearly everything from nearly everywhere in the parking lot. Designers found the solution by removing the reveal at the curb/pavement connection, this, in turn, saved money on the curb, bringing the cost in line with the budget, all while creating a ‘flush’ connection to all sides of the site.

“We put in extra ADA spaces, but it’s as if the whole lot is ADA accessible because people can spread out and park wherever they want and cross the lot and access everything without a ramp. With the baseball field on one side, the basketball court and playground on the other side, and the building on a separate side of the lot, [users] can park wherever and get to all three easily. Good call.” – Doug (Cincinnati Recreation Commission)

The Kleingers Group is proud to look beyond the ADA requirements on projects. Ultimately, it is about the end-users experience in our designs, why not make it a stress-free encounter.

The Cincinnati Public Schools SRTS program recently won the Green Advocacy Award at the Cincinnati Business Courier and Cincinnati Regional Chapter USGBC’s Green Business Awards! The award honors an organization providing educational awareness of the importance of sustainability to the Cincinnati community and/or the public at large. Congratulations Carmen Banks and Cincinnati Public Schools!

Our very own Mark Nolt is shown above with Carmen Banks.  Mark and the rest of our Transportation Group deserve a big congratulations on a job well done assisting Cincinnati Public Schools in developing their award-winning SRTS Program!

The Kleingers Group was selected by the City of Centerville to deliver public roadway improvements along Feedwire Road. The public roadway improvements are proposed to support the City’s newest economic driver; the Cornerstone of Centerville development. Feedwire Road will be designed to meet a complete streets standard and in coordination with the development, the City of Centerville and the Ohio Department of Transportation.

When the City needed to select an engineer to deliver this project, qualifications, speed of delivery and overall expertise was critical selection criteria. The assembled Kleingers team, led by Nick Yeretzian, exceeded the City’s needs and NIck looks forward to delivering an outstanding project for the City.