Assessment of Some Road Infrastructural Variables in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Abstract

It has been recognized that a good quality road infrastructure attract socio-economic development than the bad road condition. From this study, it was revealed that the study area has a total length of 6288km of roads. A total of 1272.6km (20%) constituted paved or tarred roads while about 5015.4km (80%) constituted unpaved or untarred roads. Information on road transport infrastructure variables was collected using field survey, questionnaire and data from relevant agencies. Factor analysis technique was applied to the fourteen variables to achieve a parsimonious description and identify the major factors which act as a pivot of road infrastructure quality development. From the analysis, two major factors were identified. Factor 1 identified and named as paved road and Factor 2, identified and named as unpaved road. The total variance for the factors is 55%. The study revealed that a greater percentage of the roads in the area are unpaved and it is recommended that efforts should be made to increase the length of paved roads in the area to attract socio-economic development.

KEYWORDS: Road, Paved, Unpaved, Socio-economic, Development.