Nwoye CF and Iyiola O
Road failure, as one of the major problems of urban transport operations and planning, has become an issue of national concern over the years. This omen has caused severe loss of man-hours, financial resources, loss of lives, transit discomfort, to mention but a few. Thus, this study aimed at exploring and analyzing the carrying capacities of Lagos roads. Its focus was to critically examine pavement classifications, with respect to the design traffic of the corridors chosen as the case study. The study paid attention to the composition of the traffic volumes, existence and effectiveness of load tonnage standards as well as the damage effects of overloading on the life span of the roads. The methodology involved a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The findings revealed that the corridors examined had exceeded their design carrying capacities. However, the composition of the volume of traffic for both corridors was not the same. Lekki-Epe corridor had a very insignificant proportion of high density vehicles (HDV), which are the major cause of road overload and resultant breakdown. On the contrary, Mile2-Apapa corridor had a significantly high proportion of its traffic volume being in the category of the HDVs (20% or 1 in every 5 vehicles being a HDV). The damage effects of overloading on the life span of the roads under review were revealed to be exponential in nature. All of these were seen to be as a result of the lack of implementation of laws and/or legislations on load tonnage standards by government.
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