Public Works has received your sidewalk repair request 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, Public Works’ Teamleader and his 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.