International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 7, Issue 10, October-2016 181 ISSN 2229-5518 IJSER © 2016 http://www.ijser.org Cost and Benefit Analysis of Rigid and Flexible Pavement: A Case Study at Chancho –Derba-Becho Road Project Yonas Ketema, Prof. Emer T. Quezon, Getachew Kebede Abstract: Road construction projects have been implemented all over Ethiopia as part of the national development plan. Roads are one of the country’s basic infrastructural facilities where high amounts of budget allocated every fiscal year planning period. Since the cost comprises of a large portion of government investment, a careful evaluation of the alternatives is utmost importance to make the right choice for a particular project. In the history of Ethiopia road development program, almost all of the road pavements are flexible, and it demands high foreign currency for asphalt material importing from abroad. In addition, flexible pavement needs to be maintained and rehabilitated within a few years after its initial construction. In view of the emerging cement factories and the availability of cement in Ethiopia, it is practical to consider rigid pavement as one of the alternatives. Relative to this, the research project was conducted with the main objective of identifying the cost and benefit of rigid and flexible pavements at Chancho-Derba-Becho road project, North Showa Zone in Oromia. The research work had been focused on the specific objectives to determine and compare the life cycle costs of rigid and flexible pavements and to investigate all other qualitative merits of rigid and flexible pavement. To achieve these objectives, a review of related literatures, design and specifications, observations and investigations of the actual pavement construction projects, evaluation of life cycle costs, future value of money and present worth calculation were undertaken with an analysis period of 40 years. While the data considered was gathered through investigation at the actual rigid and flexible pavement projects, examination of specifications, drawings and pavement design, Ethiopian Road Authority manuals, rehabilitation and maintenance strategy. In this regard, the cost parameters investigated are initial construction cost, maintenance cost, rehabilitation cost, user’s cost and salvage value, in addition to other qualitative and quantitative data. Based on the results of the research project, it revealed that the initial cost of rigid pavement was almost twice of the flexible pavement, but in the long run, the cost of flexible pavement per kilometer was found out to have 7.9 Million ETB more than the rigid pavement because of the incurring costs of maintenance through its design life. Therefore, it is suggested that Portland Cement Concrete Pavement (PCCP) shall be used in pavement construction to cater local material requirements. Index Terms— Cost and Benefit Analysis, Initial Construction, Flexible and Rigid Pavement, Life Cycle Cost, Roads, Manitenance and Rehabilitation, Pavement Alternative ——————————  —————————— 1 INTRODUCTION n many countries with developed road networks, new road construction typically accounts of more or less 50% of the road budget. While the remainder of national road budgets is spent on maintenance and rehabilitation of existing roads. Long-life Pavements (LLP) project is approved if the costs of future maintenance, rehabilitation and the resulting road user delay costs are economically justified [8]. There has been historically difference of opinion as to whether Hot Mix Asphalt (flexible) pavements are more economical or less economical over time, than Portland Cement Concrete (rigid) pavements. Even experienced state highway agencies and highway engineers disagree on the subject [9]. Ethiopian has been undertaking massive development programs to eradicate the country’s poverty problems and to bring up the country to the level of middle income countries in 2025 G.C. Aware of the road infrastructure development as the backbone and the blood artery for all economic, social progress, due emphasis has been given to the implementation of the Road Sector Development program (RSDP) since 1997 . To execute such a very crucial project, large amount of budget will be allocated for the surfacing of pavements. Hence, it is important to go for careful evaluation of the alternatives in order to make the right choice before implementation of such projects. In Ethiopia very few and short kilometer lengths of road projects are constructed with rigid pavement viz; in Oromia (Chancho-Derba-Bocho and Beseka road), Addis Ababa (Rehabilitation projects) and Tigray (Michew –Adigudem), of which Beseka and Addis Ababa rehabilitation projects were completed [10]. Even though there are newly emerging cement and reinforcement production factories in Ethiopia that can avoid foreign currency to buy materials for flexible pavement, only few and small scale concrete pavement projects have been undertaken in the country. Among these projects, Beseka Road, a one kilometer long which was considered the first cement concrete pavement in the history of the Ethiopian road construction project. In the last seventeen years (1997- 2014 G.C), the total length of rigid pavement constructed was only 2.3 kilometers while about 99.9% I IJSER