Factors Responsible for Poor Performance of Rigid Pavement Construction in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated “Factors responsible for poor performance of rigid pavement 
construction in Rivers State, Nigeria”. Three research questions were developed to guide the 
study. The research design adopted was descriptive survey research design. The population
consists of 165 respondents which was made up of 60 building technology educators and 105 
rigid pavement craftsmen, including lecturers/teachers, project managers, supervisors, foremen 
and site laborers in the selected universities/schools and companies. The entire population of the 
study was sampled through the means of census sampling method. The study was validated by 
the research supervisor and three other experts in the department of vocational and technology 
education. The reliability of research instrument was tested and accepted for alpha values of 0.70 
and above, which was done by computing Cronbach Alpha using (SPSS) version 23.0. Z-test 
was used to test the five (5) null hypotheses developed at 0.05 level of significance. Data for the 
study were collected using structured questionnaire of 5-point Likert scale; while data collected 
were analyzed using scores and frequency counts of mean, variance and standard deviation. The 
findings of the study among others revealed that factors responsible for poor performance of rigid 
pavement construction are; cracks due to high thermal effect, cracks due to heavy expansive 
pressure, excess rainfall, high ground water table, naira to dollar exchange rate, increase in the 
cost of building materials, labour industrial strike actions, increase in tax and labor charges, 
contract lobbying, stealing of building construction materials, inadequate grooving arrangements 
in concrete construction and inadequate curing of rigid pavements. The study recommends 
among others that; proper guidance and orientations be utilized, administered and maintained in 
construction works in order to ensure a nearly zero reduction in rigid pavement cracks.