DURABILITY AND SUSTANABILITY OF ROAD PROJECTS IN THE THREE SENATORIAL DISTRICTS OF ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study assessed the factors that contribute to durability of road projects in the three Senatorial districts of Ondo State (Akure Central, Ondo North and Ondo South) with the aim to examine the cost of planning and control before embarking on the road projects, the conformity of the road design with the outcome of the project, efficient and effective use of resources and cost variation in construction works in the three senatorial districts. Primary data were collected through administration of structured questionnaires of a total sample size of one hundred site Engineers (100), randomly selected from two local governments in each Senatorial districts of Ondo State. The study also utilised secondary sources that include journals, magazines and relevant books. Descriptive statistics analysis was employed to analyse the demographic characteristics of the respondents, the nature, age and working experience, while Relative Importance Index (RII) was adopted to rank the responses from the respondents SPSS 20.0 version Califonia Bearing Ratio (CBR) was also adopted to analyse the result from laboratory soil test of different terrain in the study area. The result revealed that the cost of durable road construction in river rine areas (Ondo South) is 40% higher than the cost of construction where there is low water retention capacity. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to test the significant level of the hypotheses. Recommendations such as strict adherence to the road design, use of right quality materials, adequate funding of road projects and control of human activities on the roads will ensure durable road projects in Ondo State.