Abstract:
Highway maintenance is one of the major tasks to provide safety and comfort for road users. It
comprises an activities such as keeping pavement slopes, drainage facilities, patching, filling
joints and all structures and property. Foamed bitumen is sprayed into the mixing drum where
it the surface (typically 0.075mm) and a soft material having complex behavior which consists hot
bitumen, quantities of water 2-5% and it produced when the water and air is injecting into hot
bitumen at 150-180oC. Lack of regular maintenance of road create a rapidly fall into disrepair
and preventing realization of the longer term impacts of road improvement on development. The
road surface types of Ambo to Gedo road is paved road and trunk road (A4). On Ambo to Gedo
road segment a significant rising of vehicle operating costs, travel time and their associated human
and property costs are happened due to lack of proper and regular maintenance. These problems
were identified through assessing existing conditions of road, to estimating the maintenance cost
of road using foamed bitumen and to determining the benefit gained of road maintenance using
foamed bitumen by present worth analysis.
A vehicles, passengers, drivers and engineers are the population of the study. The study followed
purposive sampling method and employed mixed analytical and descriptive research approach.
The maintenance cost and travel fare were collected from Ethiopian Road Authority and transport
authority respectively. The travel time were measured and counted directly on road segment. The
maintenance cost, travel time saving, vehicle operating saving and travel fare saving were
analyzed using the present worth of benefit and cost. The entire road segment revealed that
40%poor, 33.85%good and 26.15%fair conditions. The total benefit and maintenance cost were
951,393,933.9ETB and 295,824,304.1ETB. Finally the result of analysis, B/C is greater than 1
which is 3.216 using foamed bitumen and 2.71, without foamed bitumen, means were the
maintenance cost pay back and there is additional saving of benefit which show maintenance cost
is less than the benefit gained, so the maintaining road periodically saves and it reduce the
reconstruction of road cost and one contribute role to increase the economic activity of the area.
Recommend to the road authorities need to give more emphasis on road maintenance activity,
period and quality of maintenance using foamed bitumen
