With only 20 percent of the
well over 300,000 kilometres of road in Nigeria paved and in good
motorable condition, the state of the roads infrastructure in the
country is not only critical but also worrisome. It is critical and
worrisome because the importance of roads in any economy cannot be
over-emphasised. Asphalt and bitumen have been the dominant construction materials and these materials are not sustainable in the long run.
The cement concrete roads may
attract higher initial costs than asphalt pavements, the life cycle cost
analysis – which takes into account the initial capital cost of
construction and the cost of maintenance and rehabilitation to keep the
road in a serviceable state – suggests that in the long-run, cement
concrete roads are more sustainable and cost-efficient.
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