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 a high amount of budget is allocated every fiscal year. Since the road costs are comprised 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 gravel wearing and flexible demanding high foreign currency for asphalt material imported from abroad. In addition, gravel wearing and 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.
In view of the above, this research project was conducted with the main objective of comparing the cost and benefit of rigid and flexible pavements and gravel wearing of the Gumara-Kirstos Semra road project, South Gondar Zone in Amhara Region. The research focused on specific objectives to determine and compare the life cycle costs of rigid, flexible pavements and gravel wearing and to investigate pertinent respective qualitative merits. To achieve these objectives, reviews of related literatures were carried out. 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 within analysis period of 40 years.
While the data considered were gathered through investigation at the actual rigid and flexible pavement and gravel wearing 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, and user’s cost and salvage value, in addition to other qualitative and quantitative data. The results of the analysis indicated that rigid pavement is the optimal of the three alternatives