monolithic sidewalk

n.

A narrow sidewalk with no boulevard between the sidewalk and the curb.

Example Citations:

We've occasionally noticed small red signs on utility poles that say "monolithic sidewalk begins," which puzzled us because the sidewalk looked a lot like ones without such a serious-sounding designation. Adding to the puzzle is the white outline of a snow plow. ... He explained that such sidewalks are too narrow to store snow pushed onto them by plows. The signs alert the plow driver "not to push the snow onto the sidewalk but leave it on the road, close to the curb.

—" The Fixer: Mystery of the 'monolithic sidewalk" revealed: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/fixer/article/798818--the-fixer-mystery-of-the-monolithic-sidewalk-revealed," The Toronto Star, April 22, 2010

Last year the planning and public works department proposed a list of revisions to the city's Winter Roadway Maintenance Manual. The new policy, when there is significant snowfall, is to windrow and remove the snow from residential areas with monolithic sidewalks and downtown.

—Leo Pare, "City hurries to keep up with snow fall," The Lloydminster Meridian Booster, December 1, 2006

Earliest Citation:

If approved, the amendment would require all new subdivisions to construct a 5-foot-wide monolithic sidewalk on both sides of a street that runs for at least 50 feet. The amendment would give developers the choice to install either the monolithic sidewalks or an 8-foot-wide sidewalk with planters.

—Hanh Kim Quach, "Fresnans seek two sidewalks on every street," Fresno Bee, January 4, 1998

Notes:

This phrase might be a bit older than 1998. The city of Mountain View, California published the Mountain View 1992 General Plan: http://books.google.ca/books?id=vpmxAAAAIAAJ&q=monolithic+sidewalk, possibly in 1993, which includes an illustration titled "Monolithic Sidewalk" that appears to show a sidewalk without a boulevard.

Also, the construction trade has used the phrase "monolithic sidewalk" for about a hundred years or so to refer to a sidewalk and curb poured as a continuous slab of concrete.

Related Words:

sidewalk tax

walkshed

Category:

Housing and Architecture

To me, the most curious thing here is the reference to "no boulevard between the sidewalk and the curb". Since a boulevard is a broad, typically tree-lined city street, I wonder how on earth there can be room to fit a whole additional street -- and a wide one, at that -- into such a narrow gap!A boulevard also refers to "a strip of lawn between a sidewalk and the curb" (see http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/boulevard: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/boulevard). However, this might be a regionalism.