Assessment of the highway pavement condition and their maintenance practices in Uganda: (case study [of] Kampala-Masaka highway road)

Abstract

Worldwide, highways road is a critical infrastructure for economic development of the country. This study investigates the condition of highway pavement and their maintenance practices in Uganda. The objective of this study was to identify factors causing failures of highways roads, and the road maintenance practices to minimize the failures in Uganda. The study also assesses the common road defect in Uganda highways road. A comprehensive literature concerning the factors of road deterioration, common road defects, their causes and maintenance practices were reviewed. The Kampala-Masaka highway road was selected for this study because it’s the most accident-prone stretches of highway in Uganda recording between 200 and 300 fatalities annually (The ministry of work and transport, 2019).. The results revealed that the roads investigated experienced severe failures in the forms of cracks, potholes and rutting in the wheel path. The causes of those failures were found mainly linked to poor drainage, traffic overloading, weather condition, poor workmanship expansive subgrade soils and the use of low quality materials in construction. Based on the results, recommendations were provided to help highway engineers in selecting the most effective repair techniques for specific kinds of distresses.