Latest revision as of 12:00, 21 March 2021

Abstract

Road construction projects have been implemented all over Ethiopia as part of the national development plan. Roads are one of the country’s basic infrastructural facilities where high amounts of budget allocated every fiscal year planning period. Since the cost comprises of a large portion of government investment, a careful evaluation of the alternatives is utmost importance to make the right choice for a particular project. In the history of Ethiopia road development program, almost all of the road pavements are flexible, and it demands high foreign currency for asphalt material importing from abroad. In addition, flexible pavement needs to be maintained and rehabilitated within a few years after its initial construction. In view of the emerging cement factories and the availability of cement in Ethiopia, it is practical to consider rigid pavement as one of the alternatives. Relative to this, the research project was conducted with the main objective of identifying the cost and benefit of rigid and flexible pavements at Chancho-Derba-Becho road project, North Showa Zone in Oromia. The research work had been focused on the specific objectives to determine and compare the life cycle costs of rigid and flexible pavements and to investigate all other qualitative merits of rigid and flexible pavement. To achieve these objectives, a review of related literatures, design and specifications, observations and investigations of the actual pavement construction projects, evaluation of life cycle costs, future value of money and present worth calculation were undertaken with an analysis period of 40 years. While the data considered was gathered through investigation at the actual rigid and flexible pavement projects, examination of specifications, drawings and pavement design, Ethiopian Road Authority manuals, rehabilitation and maintenance strategy. In this regard, the cost parameters investigated are initial construction cost, maintenance cost, rehabilitation cost, user’s cost and salvage value, in addition to other qualitative and quantitative data. Based on the results of the research project, it revealed that the initial cost of rigid pavement was almost twice of the flexible pavement, but in the long run, the cost of flexible pavement per kilometer was found out to have 7.9 Million ETB more than the rigid pavement because of the incurring costs of maintenance through its design life. Therefore, it is suggested that Portland Cement Concrete Pavement (PCCP) shall be used in pavement construction to cater local material requirements. Index Terms— Cost and Benefit Analysis, Initial Construction, Flexible and Rigid Pavement, Life Cycle Cost, Roads, Manitenance and Rehabilitation, Pavement Alternative

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