Assessment of the Cause and Effect of Early Damage of Cobble Stone Road Construction and Its Remedial Measurements:A Case of Nekemte Town Cheleleki Sub City

Road constructing in Ethiopia is increasingly in demand to meet its medium and long term development programs.Most internal roads of Oromia city/town are cobblestone and gravel.Some portions along the alignment proposed and existing roads traversed low resistance of the subgrade that affect the stability of the upper layers of cobblestones.Structural failure is observed on cobblestone roads,and it would be constructed with good quality or low quality of materials.Nekemte Cobblestones Projects have been started in 2014 widely which were filled in most areas today as we observed that needs to be addressed and a corresponding remedial measures must be drawn.A possible counteractive actions had been ordered for every observed destroyed to achieve the standard road situation of the study zone.An evaluation was made use observation,interviews,laboratory test and field test to govern an appropriateness of cobblestones.The lie beneath soil used for bottom layers of road structure based on standard of Ethiopian Road Authority(ERA)low volume road standards.Therefore,result from the field test and laboratory test shown,causes of cobblestone road failures of Nekemte street segment were mostly because of the construction steps/sequence,quality of materials,road construction time,absence of appropriate design,quality supervisor,absences of drainage structures,lack of highly compaction,lack of accurately fill fine aggregate and suddenly high loads vehicle applied on cobblestone road.

Slope Instability at Nablus-Al Bathan Road, Palestinian Territories (Causes, Analysis and Remedy Measurements)

Nablus-Al Bathan Road which connects Nablus City and Jordan Valley in the West Bank of Palestinian Territories, was widened, reconstructed and rehabilitated in 2009, however, between 2010 and 2012 road defects at several locations were observed. To fix these defects especially at station 2 + 100 of the road, soil replacement in the body of the road and big boulders to support the edge of the road were used. Unfortunately, large settlement occurred in the part of the road under maintenance and more sliding and slope instability occurred in the road at station 2+ 100 during the remedial measures. Studies were carried out to find the causes of this problem. These included surveying of the area, geotechnical studies (making trial pits, performing geophysical seismic exploration and digging out several boreholes), in addition to slope stability analysis. It was found that the main causes of landslides were types of soils at the site, high slopes, groundwater recharged from rainfall and changing of weights (cut and fill). Remedy measures were suggested to overcome sliding problem based on available resources and local technology.

A Study of Underpinning Methods Used in the Construction Industry in Nigeria

Foundation and retaining wall failures account for the highest case of structural failures.This is a report on a study of underpinning methods used in the construction industry in Nigeria.In view of underpinning,just like most engineering decisions,there is no unique solution,the research investigated technique of remedying foundation defects and whether there are innovations as regards to the underpinning methods used in Nigeria.To achieve the desired objective structured questionnaire,oral interviews and case study of an ongoing underpinning work were carried out.Result shows that differential settlement with a mean of 2.28 is the most frequent cause of foundation failure.While the continuous strip and reinforced mat with mean of 2.7 and 2.67 respectively,are most frequently used underpinning methods in Nigerian construction industry.Also 81.3%of the respondents agree that underpinning methods adopted are suitable and effective.Professionals in Nigeria have devised unique method of underpinning.It was recommended that proper and adequate site investigation should be carried out.Heavy penalties and sanctions should be meted on those construction firms that employ quack professionals.