Public Works has received your sidewalk repair request (#18-01-0169) and assigned it to our sidewalk inspector. Given we receive hundreds of these requests per year on virtually every stretch of Alameda’s 260 miles of sidewalk, your electronic submission goes a long way to helping you and Public Works track the request. Per Alameda’s municipal code and state law, property owners are responsible for the sidewalk adjacent to their property. As a courtesy, the City completes sidewalk repairs when the repair has been caused by a City-maintained street tree. Thus, the City inspector will inspect the repair to evaluate if it is less than ¾ inch and has been caused by a City-maintained street tree. If not, the owner will be sent a notice to repair the sidewalk. If the repair has been caused by a street tree, in most instances, the City's Concrete shop will grind the sidewalk and/or insert a fillet, and place the location on our permanent repair list. This process to get on the permanent repair list typically takes 30 days. The permanent repair, however, will likely take much longer. A permanent repair is when new concrete is poured to fix the repair. Nearly 700 of these repairs were performed last year, most by the City’s annual sidewalk repair contractor. Those locations, and their number, are chosen based on limited available funds and are completed in order of the repair’s submission date. Even though Public Works has nearly doubled its annual repair rate recently, there is a still a backlog of thousands of sidewalk repairs, largely due to years and years of underinvestment. Thank you in advance for your help (and patience) in maintaining Alameda’s sidewalks.

Dear Jeremy,

I am the woman you so kindly stopped to help after the accident described in this report.

Thank you for calling an ambulance for me. And thank you for reporting this root hazard. I was in too much pain and shock to ask your name at the time of the accident, but I am glad to be able to thank you again here. Your daughter seemed quite traumatized, and I hope she is OK.

FYI, I spent four days in the hospital and underwent a six-hour operation to replace my fractured left hip and repair my fractured left shoulder.

Thanks again for reporting this hazard. You are right — the photo doesn’t begin to do it justice.

Thank you for submitting this request (#18-01-0169). It has been addressed and is now closed.