ASSESSMENTS OF THE GRAVEL ROAD DETERIORATION HAVING LACK OF MAINTENANCE: CASE STUDY IN JIMMA ZONE

Gravel roads deterioration with absence of maintenance is one of the serious issue and common problem in the world. It’s majorly affected by deterioration which manifests as removing from gravel road materials with the major factors such as traffic volume and environmental conditions. Jimma zone might have been a standout amongst those ranges influenced toward the issue for gravel road having lack of maintenances. In order to achieve the objective of this study, the researchers were used questionnaire survey method. The existing road sections having lack of maintenance on a given time have been identified. Then the representative road (Sarbo-Busa, Saka-Ushane and Buxure-Sanxama) and questionnaire surveys samples have been selected by non-probabilistic purposive and systematic sampling respectively. The questionnaire’s survey was focused on identifying the causes of absence of maintenance and pre-conditions considered. questionnaire survey was analyzed by RII. The absence of maintenance was occurred due to lack of budget fund, poor management, lack of skilled manpower, lack of good material quality, lack of regular inspections, poor working environments. The pre-conditions considered while maintaining the gravel roads are: Cost of maintenance, class as the road, maintenance schedule, skilled manpower, topography, number of road users, traffic volume, and economic standards of the society and location of the road from the center. In Jimma zone the deterioration of gravel roads have been increasing with the absence of maintenance time.