Road maintenance is essential in order to; preserve the road in its originally constructed condition, to protect adjacent resources and user safety, to provide efficient and convenient traveling in the regions. Unfortunately, maintenance is often neglected or improperly performed resulting in rapid deterioration of the roads, and eventually failure from both climatic and vehicle use impact. It is impossible to build and use a road that requires no maintenance. Is for this reason, the Ministry of Public Works uses this Medium to enlighten the public on the various criteria use to eradicate bad roads.

In deciding on an appropriate level of maintenance for a particular road or road segment, consideration must be given to the amount and type of vehicle use, the nature of vehicles, how many vehicles passes on that road per day, if the interval of non-use is relatively short, physiographic and climatic variable can impact road and drainage, the physical barricade blocking on entrances to the road are periodic checks made throughout the non-use period to ensure that road drainage structures, erosion control measures, and other slope protection measures are functioning properly.

Furthermore, constructed roads that did not meet up with the interval, needs maintenance, in this case feasibility study is very necessary to determine the fault on that area of the road, which might be either the nature of the soil, to determine if filling of gravel and compression of soil before tarring, could be necessary in that area

Another aspect is that, before a road is to undergo maintenance there are certain criteria to considered, roads that does not meet up with it full time allocation there are some geotechnical aspect that are to be re-conducted to know the type of soil. Feasibility study are done to dictate the failure of that particular area of the road, studies are not just done by chance but for the technicians to know the cause of the road damage before the predicted time. Damages are caused when heavy earth moving is taking place in that area for example, factories, urban development, logging, mining etc.

After this is done, the technicians will determine either to refill the area with lots of compressed soil, focusing more on the soil shoulders and cut banks taking off undercut, before applying tick tares of 4-7m depending on the location of the road.

For using heavy equipment such as grader, the following procedure is required;

• Complete job index, complete history of project from planning stage to construction, photographic records, exact location and observations of any unstable conditions in relation to the road location.
• Exact location of culverts and other drainage features, wet areas that may have required additional excavation and replacement with more suitable ballast backfield materials, all major changes made to the original plan.
• Flag all culverts and cross drains, remove snags, rocks, and other hazards before grading begins
• Cut only the ditch bottom and shoulder; avoid undercutting the cut slope; do not redress the cut slope, spread fines into the road with surface reworking
• Avoid working around culverts or other channel crossing structures so as to minimize damage to inlets. Stream channels should be completely free of floatable debris (branches, leaves, small logs, construction material, garbage, etc. for at least 30m (100 feet) upstream.

Another important aspect is that there are some practices and methods to help minimize impacts from road chemicals include:

- Control application; much chemical is needed, both in concentration and rate of application, to provide the desired effect. Chemical is not apply immediately prior to or during rainfall and again is good to perform trial applications to determine if calculated application rate is adequate.

- Uses extra caution near stream; avoid applying chemicals where the road crosses a channel and for 20m (60 feet) on either side.

In addition, it is also desirable to break up the road surface with deep penetrating hydraulic ripper teeth, this aid in restoring soil permeability and enhancing re-vegetation. Either the road is planned for closure with the intent of reconstructing at some point in the future or the road is planned for permanent closure.

When a road is damage, a partial restoration of the original ground profile maybe considered, an effective method closure can be used on sideslopes less than 60 percent. If terrain and road conditions permit the use of this technique without significant loss of soil over the edge of the fill, this procedure can be accomplished with an angle-blade bulldozer.This technique is not appropriate on end haul constructed roads, on ballasted or surfaced roads, on some soil types, or in regions with high precipitation.