Maintenance is always necessary for any road to continue its serviceability and to prevent deterioration that may shorten the service life. Gravel road maintenance in the South Wollo zone suffers from many problems and complex issues including cost overrun, time overrun, quality compromise, low productivity, and client dissatisfaction. This research attempted to identify and investigate the main factors affecting the performance of gravel road maintenance in the South Wollo zone. The significance of this study is to provide immediate benefits to road users, believed to improve the awareness of clients and project experts and provide information to local governments to adopt a well-planned program of gravelroad maintenance. The research design was used both qualitative and quantitative approacheswhere the instruments to collect data were desk Study, questionnaires, interviews, and site observation. A case study on selected projects was made to check and identify the findings of survey analysis. All (Six) actively maintenance gravel road sites which have a total length of 173.81km were taken as a representative sample. For survey analysis, 54participants and case study 27 participants were purposely selected from each contracting party. The collected 42 quantitative data were analyzed with SPSS version 25 software. The qualitative data were also analyzed through narration and contextual interpretation. The results of the study showed that poor drainage management system, unexpected traffic overload, and shortage of budget during construction of roads with a mean score of 4.50, 4.33, and 4.26 respectively, were the main causes of road deterioration. Poor contractors‟ resource management system, inadequate budget allocation for maintenance, and politicians‟ influence with a mean score of 4.33, 4.31, and 4.30, respectively, were the most critical factors affecting the performance of the gravel road maintenance. Moreover, the study shows that the effects of poor gravel road maintenance were increased transport costs of road users and increases vehicle operating and road maintenance cost with a mean score of 4.28 and 4.27. The study concluded that gravel road maintenance did not complete withinthe planned budget, schedule, and quality. It recommends that there is a need to provide proper drainage elements and more funding should be given to the road's maintenance. Road interventions should be applied to reduce further deterioration of roads. In general, contractors should responsible for controlling and managing resources and roads during maintenance and also, the clients‟/government/ and consultants shall take more responsibility to avoid the possible occurr ences of delay and cost overrun by properly defining the scope of the maintenance works. Keywords:gravel road, performance, factors affecting maintenance, South Wollo