Todd Fulk (right) oversees South Broad Street sidewalk repairs performed by George Kale (center), equipment technician, and Eric Waters, project manager.

The men wearing chartreuse shirts and hanging around for several days on South Broad Street were tending to sidewalk woes.

Todd Fulk, owner of the Buford firm of Georgia Safe Sidewalks, said sidewalks should be four inches thick.

“We don’t want to do more than two inches, because we need to leave thickness in the sidewalk,” Fulk explained. Problem spots in sidewalks of more than two inches will undergo other repairs.

Fulk’s crew removes small trip-and-fall hazards and provides Thomasville city government with a satellite map of places beyond the company’s scope.

The cost to replace a whole sidewalk panel is $200. Fulk’s company repairs problem spots for $40.

The company completed three city sidewalk projects in 2012, repairing about 1,300 sidewalk panels.

The recent South Broad project involved 228 repairs versus the city replacing sidewalk panels at a cost of $36,000.

“The repairs we make fully meet the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),” Fulk said.

Tree roots growing under sidewalks cause damage. Vehicles traveling over sidewalks also damage the panels.

“They’re not designed for automobile traffic,” Fulk said.

The city’s overall sidewalk project involves grinding down jutting edges of sidewalks, replacing irreparable sections and constructing new sections of sidewalk.

See Sunday’s edition for more details.