Administrative Problems on Asphalt Road Pavement Maintenance and Rehabilitation: A Case Study in Kabul City Road Authority

Pavement Management System (PMS) is a tool for data collection, analysis, maintaining, and making reports, to help decision-makers and to find out best strategies for pavement Maintenance and Rehabilitation (M-R) due to pavement serviceability status and lowest cost. The main aim of this study is to evaluate and identify the current administrative problems of M-R in Kabul City Road Authority (KCRA). KCRA lacks appropriate pavement maintenance strategies which have resulted in the loss of a huge value of the investment in previous years. After a detail review of scientific papers and international experience in managing asphalt M-R, based on pavement evaluation, maintenance, and PMS questionnaire was developed and an interview was conducted. Through interview and questionnaire survey of professionals; the present M-R practice of KCRA is evaluated. Responses are graded by the average index method. In conclusion, the finding of this study implies that KCRA didn’t conduct adequate pavement condition evaluation that can be sound input for recommending maintenance options, and the maintenance work is limited to overlay and pouching and performing maintenance without adequately defining the road cause of distress. Moreover, this study identifies the greatest challenges for road M-R in KCRA which is the absence of well-established PMS, lack of skilled manpower, lack of supervision and quality control, lack of budget, lack of proper machinery and equipment, and political influence respectively. The study recommended that KCRA must evaluate and apply alternative pavement assessment and maintenance techniques. Moreover, KCRA has to establish PMS to manage maintenance activities for better and optimum utilization of the resource. Further research is also suggested which includes the development of PMS and pavement treatment selection alternatives for KCRA.