Umudike Journal of Engineering and Technology

Most of the road pavements in developing countries of Africa are in deplorable condition and Nigeria being one of these countries is not an exception. The present statistical research work has discovered 51 causes of road pavement failures which have been assessed and analyzed statistically from the perceptions of contractors and consultants in the industry through a means of responses, severity index and ranking which lead to the development of an agreement based on the analyzed factors by both parties through a means of null hypothesis. By the assessment and agreement fully depicted in the table and the null hypothesis analysis carried out, the contractors and consultants collectively highlighted several factors as the intricate causes of road pavement failures in Nigeria. From Table 1, it has been shown that Contractors ranked “poor maintenance policy/culture”1^st while consultants had ranked it 5^th. Further, “poor design and construction” and “inadequate strength in surfacing and base” were equally ranked 2^nd by Contractors whilst these were ranked 3^rd and 4^th respectively by Consultants. Finally, “poor highway facilities” and “inadequate compaction before opening to traffic” were ranked 3^rd by Contractors whilst Consultants on their part ranked these 2^nd and 12^th respectively. However, “defects caused during construction due to poor construction quality” and “inferior asphalt mix design” that had been ranked 1^st by Contractors were ranked 8^th and 5^th respectively by Consultants thereby recommending prompt attention by road workers, highway management and maintenance agencies and government to look into these important critical factors causing road pavement failures in Nigeria, outline and enforce ways of tackling them. Finally, the test of null hypothesis carried out went further to indicate the degree of agreement between contractors and consultants in their assessment of the identified causes of road pavement failure in south eastern Nigeria.