COMPUTER BASED DEVELOPMENT OF A COST EFFECTIVE MAINTENANCE SCHEME FOR IMPROVED EFFICIENCY OF NIGER STATE ROAD NETWORK

Well Researched and Ready to use Dissertation, page number: 154, Department: M.Sc Civil Engineering

ABSTRACT 

This thesis presents a computer based development of a cost effective maintenance scheme for the entire Niger state road network, based on a strategy of timeliness in data gathering and management of the recurrent budgetary allocations for desirable maintenance options and priorities. A road inventory was established for the entire state road network, while twelve candidate roads were selected at random across the network for the conceptualization of the scheme. The Average Daily Traffic data (ADT) obtained on these roads were used to estimate the Equivalent Standard Axle Load (ESALs) covering a twenty year analysis period ; which served as the basis for prioritizing the roads in order of importance for the maintenance strategy, the trend of the annual budgetary provisions for road maintenance was equally analyzed. The Niger state road map was digitized using the AutoCAD 2000 computer software; in which the road map was divided into three zones according to the geopolitical spread. The digitized road map was then exported from the AutoCAD2000 drawing environment into the ArcView GIS 3.2a computer software environment from where a data base was established for the entire road network based on relationships between the tabular data source and the geographic features on the digitized road map. The prevailing road condition data in terms of the wheel track rutting, cracking and potholes were collected from each of the selected candidate roads; analyzed and set out into severity bands based on certain perceived or established maintenance intervention levels for each of the defects. Transition probability matrix reflecting the pavement condition and environment (climates and weather) was also defined, using Costello’s approach for each of the zones with which the Markov chain was applied to model the recurrent deterioration over a twenty year analysis period. The results of this study indicated that the accessibility in terms of road density for Niger state is approximately 0.036km/km2 , a value by far below the global economic bench mark of 0.19km/km2 – 0.47km/km2 ,Also the application of the Markov chain deterioration model for a 20 year analysis indicated that whenever available maintenance funds are utilized on the network ; a corresponding improvement in network condition is observed even as the proportion of roads in the “Fair-V.Good” condition band is increased appreciably. On the other hand when maintenance funds are not available for utilization on the network, a warp in network condition is observed; this implies a desirable effective maintenance method for predicting maintenance budgetary planning and management. 

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