Imagine walking across the road with your eyes closed.

Think of rolling across a street and onto a sidewalk in a wheelchair, then trying to turn a corner.

Picture being able to walk in just a short shuffle, and trying to cross a busy intersection.

These are some scenarios Bernie Gantert raised Thursday as she walked and measured some of the ramps and crosswalks near Franklin School. Gantert, who found some features to her liking and others troublesome, isn't the first to take a close look at the crossings near bulbouts the city of Missoula installed this summer.

"One thing we kind of discovered this year was that we need to do a better job (statewide) of making sure that somebody is looking at the plans to make sure that ADA (Americans WIth Disabilities Act) is getting done right," said Marcee Allen, with the Montana division of the Federal Highway Administration.

After a recent audit of the work Missoula completed with a "Safe Routes to School" grant, the federal agency is asking the city to make some changes to ramps and crosswalks near the new bulbouts. The changes are estimated to cost $30,000.

The bulbouts themselves raised the ire of some bikers and drivers earlier this year. Some of the curb extensions pushed into narrow roads and spilled into bike lanes, and the city since painted the bike lanes to go around the bulbouts, according to a city official.

This time, it isn't the bulbouts themselves that need retooling. First, because bulbouts are relatively new, guidelines weren't clear for where some of the pedestrian features should be placed in relation to them.

Also, the bulbouts affect the overall flow of drivers and pedestrians in the intersections. Since federal money helped pay for the structures, the federal agency ruled the crossings around the bulbouts need to be accessible.

"They have to bring the curb ramps up to (ADA) standards in those locations where they installed the bulbouts," Allen said.

Using the newer features proved to be part of the challenge for the city. Doug Harby, city engineering construction project manager, said ADA standards can feel like a moving target.

"It was like we were playing football and all of a sudden, the end zone went from 10 yards to 20 yards," Harby said. "But we have to be flexible."

A lot of the redo will involve the new slabs of "truncated domes," or bumpy tiles, set at the end of curb cuts. The bumpy patches alert people who can't see well and use a cane that they're leaving the safety of the sidewalk and entering traffic.

(The federal agency still must approve the designs for ADA compliance - something Allen and Harby said will be done on the front end in the future. Harby said a federal highway official approved the initial design; a federal highway official with ADA expertise, however, had not until the audit.)

As planned, in some cases, the bumpy tiles will need to be torn out and moved to the end of the sidewalk. In other cases, the domes will need to be set in the pavement where the bulbout ends. At some corners, the older "tactile warning," or patterns created by pushing wire into concrete, will be replaced with the newer tiles.

"The domes are actually set into the wet concrete," Harby said. "It's kind of like decorating a cake."

He said a couple of other ramps need to be rebuilt, as does a section of sidewalk. The tiles cost just a couple of hundred dollars each, but blowing out the concrete and installing sidewalk is expensive.

Public Works director Steve King said the city is continuing its "Safe Routes to School" program with no delays and is planning for future phases. It also is receiving stimulus money for adding ADA-compliant ramps throughout town, and King said it's "a very good fit" to have some of the money spent on the curbs that need upgrading.

He acknowledged some of the money could have been spent differently, though: "It could have gone elsewhere. But it really is intended to make compliant ADA crosswalks, and that's what it's going to end up doing."

The cost of installing the bulbouts themselves, a "Safe Routes" project, was estimated earlier at $30,000 to $50,000.

For future designs, Gantert, a coordinator for Disability Services for Students at the University of Montana, cautioned the city to spend the people's dollars with care.

"Since we are in such economic tight times, spend the money wisely," she said.

With her keen eyes and a measuring tool, Gantert pointed out the places near Franklin School where the curb cut is flush with the road. That makes it easy on someone riding a wheelchair, or even an older person who has trouble walking.

She also saw places where some people with disabilities might have trouble. One sidewalk curved instead of heading straight to the curb cut, for instance. One slope measurement was steep. In a couple of places, she said there wasn't enough room for a wheelchair to easily make a turn.

"When we design it, we need to put the accessibility in the design phase so it's not an afterthought, so it doesn't end up costing more money because you have to retrofit it," she said.

Harby, in fact, said Missoula has been progressive when it comes to ADA standards. While the desire was there, an authority on the nuances of the rules wasn't always present, he said. The federal oversight on stimulus projects brought the need for closer ADA review to light, though, and he said rules that were up for interpretation before are getting cleared up.

"We're going to follow the book a lot closer," Harby said. "Some of the open interpretations are being tightened up."

Reporter Keila Szpaller can be reached at 523-5262, keila.szpaller @missoulian.com or on MissoulaRedTape.com.