INTEGRATION OF THE CAUSE OF DETERIORATION OF ROADS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Abstract

This paper presents a simple approach to identify the cause of deterioration of flexible pavements in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in order to help engineers select the most appropriate interventions. This approach associates each distress to potential causes, in order to select relevant tests so that the cause may be confirmed and then appropriate interventions representing the cheapest long-term solution while meeting acceptable levels from a technical, environmental and socie-tal point of views. A 120 km highway section in the north of Senegal was analysed with the proposed approach. This stu-dy compares the intervention option chosen by the consulting engineer according a conventional structural design with the approach proposed in this paper. The proposed approach is based on the assessment of the cause of deterioration, and the confirmation of the cause with tests, followed by the HDM-4 flexible pavement deterioration models of PIARC (World Road Association) to support the choice of the optimal solu-tion.