ASSESSMENT OF PAVEMENT DISTRESSES IN ADDIS ABABA CITY ROAD: CAUSES AND MAINTENANCE

Paved roads in tropical and sub-tropical climates often deteriorate in different ways to those in temperate regions, because of the harsh climatic conditions, lack of proper design and quality control, high loads and inadequate assessment for identifying causes of distresses before carrying out maintenance and rehabilitation. A pavement distress that occurs at the surface can have a number of different causes which must be properly identified before corrective action is taken. The visible manifestation of the problem at the surface may be the same; however, the solution for each cause may be different. Therefore, if the remedial action is to be effective, the cause of the problem must be identified and corrected. The present road condition of Addis Ababa shows rapid deterioration. The severity of pavement distresses is even more critical on the major arterial roads were the traffic volume of busses, heavy trucks, passenger vehicles and taxies is comparatively higher than other road network. Such severe distresses summed up with inadequate road signs and markings are resulting congestion and consequently causing further deterioration of roads due to maximum static load sustained from the vehicular traffic waiting in a queue on the pavement. This Project mainly focuses on making assessment of pavement distress, identifying causes of pavement distress and proposing maintenance options for the Addis Ababa city roads. The visual survey analysis indicates that almost all roads have pavement distress like rutting raveling and crocodile cracks are mostly occurred