Construction of the various pavement layers is very much dependent on the geotechnical characteristics of the subgrade soils. The aim of this paper is to characterize the subgrade soils of Arba Minch - Wolaita Sodo main road to Zefine town. To achieve these objectives, twenty soil sample pits were selected from different representative parts of the existing road at a 1km interval. The laboratory test results showed that the NMC ranges from 9.29% to 15.86%, Percentage finer ranges from 63.36% to 78.31%, LL ranges from 31.53% to 60.27%, PI ranges from 6.49% to 39.02%, GI ranges from 4 to 31, OMC ranges from 14.00 % to 17.74 %, MDD ranges from 1.74 g/cc to 1.98g/cc, CBR ranges from 2.05% to 9.08% and CBR swell ranges from 1.05% to 3.66%. Based on this results the study area was characterized as silt and clay soils, and for the soils classification under A-4, A-5 and A-7-6 according to AASHTO soil classification system and from all soil samples the subgrade strength class based on CBR value, for the soil samples, from TP1 to TP 3 were S1 and TP9, TP16, TP18 and TP19 were S4, and the remaining soil samples S3 class.