Performance assessment of the state of road infrastructure in selected urban centers in Kogi State in Nigeria

Road infrastructure has been identified as a major factor in the development of a nation and where is lacking or inadequate usually creates a memorable hardship for road users. To this end, this study assessed the state of road infrastructure in selected urban centres in Kogi State, Nigeria. Structured questionnaire cum field observation were deployed to collect the required data for the study. The structure questionnaire were administered to one thousand, two hundred and fifteen (1,215) household heads in the selected urban centres to elicit information on the perception of the urban dwellers with the state of road infrastructure. More importantly, Z-Score technique was utilized to show variation in the distribution of road infrastructure in the selected urban centres in Kogi State. Findings revealed that disparity exists in the provision of road infrastructure across the selected urban centres in the study area with the highest Z-Score value of 3.85 in Lokoja and a least Z-Score value of -0.28 in Mopa-Amuro. Findings also indicated that that the respondents (urban dwellers) were dissatisfied with the condition of road network and fairly satisfied with the state of bridge and drainage system, lay-by and walk way, street light, traffic/road sign and parking spaces available in the study area. Having revealed the level of satisfaction of respondents with the physical state of existing road infrastructures and their serviceability, the study recommends that Kogi State government should made concerted efforts to develop and implement standard road infrastructure capacity framework for road construction, rehabilitation and maintenance across the urban centres in Kogi State.