Assessment of Road Development in Abak Local Government Area, Nigeria

Abstract

The poor quality of infrastructure in terms of network density, connectivity and accessibility levels and general conditions of road affect not only the rural economy but also triggers internal migration to urban areas. This study aim at assessing road development in Abak local government taking into consideration road connectivity and accessibility levels and the general conditions of existing roads using data obtained from field and map analysis.The study area was stratified into five (5) clans using stratified random sample. The Gamma and Shimble index techniques were used to analyze the data. Three hundred and ninety eight (398) copies of questionnaire were collected out of the 400 copies distributed. The result indicated that the study area has a total of 152.4km length of roads. 36km are paved federal roads, 84km unpaved state roads, and 1.69 km paved local roads and 30.7km unpaved local roads. The current status of road development coupled with poor conditions of road infrastructure is devasting and counter-productive to economic development of the study area. The roads in the area have been identified as deplorable. Thus, it is recommended that more roads should be opened and paved and properly maintained so as to achieve adequate level of accessibility and connectivity in the study area.

Key words: Road, Development, Connectivity, Accessibility.