Velocity Global is a ‘two-minute’ pothole-patching company with branches in the United Kingdom, Middle East, Africa, North and South America. The head of Business Development, Gavin Blogg, speaks with KATE ANI on why the road maintenance company is launching its presence in Nigeria. Excerpts:
This is your first time in Nigeria. Can you share with us your experiences so far?
My experience in Nigeria since arriving in the country through the Lagos international airport, from a work point of view, is that the roads are dangerous and it seems that there is a public wail to get the roads fixed and motorable. I just came into the country and so far, it has been nice. Lagos airport is fantastic. The people are very friendly.
You are in the country to officially launch Velocity Global. What is it all about?
Our company is based in the United Kingdom. As the head of business development, I am in charge of our business branches all over the world. We have been operating for the past 20 years. Velocity Global is a road-patching maintenance company that has transformed the traditional approach to highway maintenance with the development and introduction of spray injecting patching. This is done in two minutes per pothole repair, with no need for road closures and minimized inconvenience for road users.
You mean you can repair a gaping pothole in two minutes? How do you do that?
The state-of-the-art truck built at our facility in Sunderland, United Kingdom, is a high capacity hopper and emulsion tank. With just one delivery hose attached to its rear end, within two minutes, it levels up and patches a pothole on the road. To achieve this, a high velocity of air is used to remove all dust and debris from the defect, leaving a perfect base for repair. A cold bitumen emulsion is forced into every crack and crevice, sealing the defect and protecting it by preventing the ingress of water. The aggregate mix is then fired at high velocity through the delivery hose and the granules are evenly coated with bitumen emulsion. We also sell these trucks which we have been manufacturing since 1997. We are all over the world. We launched our presence in South Africa in 2010, Kenya and Zambia last year and we are still broadening our base.
How long does a two-minute patched pothole last?
It lasts up to eight years.
Don’t you think your technique may not work as perfectly as it does in other countries due to the state of Nigerian roads?
The materials they use is constructing roads in England is different from the United States of America and Mexico. Every country has different stones and bitumen, so we use the local mixes here in Nigeria to patch potholes. We don’t construct roads. We maintain already constructed roads that have gaping potholes. With this, the government does not need to set aside huge sums of money to repair potholes on roads. The productivity of the machine is such that it can do so much in a day. Constructing a new road is not what we do but we maintain what is already there.
You are looking into partnering with the state governments, what reactions have you got so far?
We have been trying to approach some state governors because they are the main stakeholders. The talks are ongoing.
Why do you think the state governments would shun direct labour in patching roads and giving a hundreds of people jobs and opt for the services of Velocity Global to fix the job within two minutes, with only two people operating the machine? Are you not aware that the country is battling a high unemployment rate?
I am aware of that. But if it costs N3 billion to do the roads traditionally, Velocity will do all that work for N1 billion. The states still have N2 billion left, which they can still use to employ people and do other things. They can spend the money saved on other things like streetlights. That way, nobody will lose their job. A government official once asked how a two-man crew could take the job of 20 people, because when they use direct labour, even more than 20 people would be on the ground and everybody would have something to do. But we know that bad roads have caused lots of deaths on highways and major roads. In order to save lives and ease transportation of goods, there is the need for a quick and swift patching. As investors, we also train and employ local people. Nigeria is a huge economy that is rapidly developing. We are looking to invest in other sectors, too. We have done the University of Ibadan major roads. This has cut down their budget significantly. A road that could have been repaired, using the traditional method, with N9 million just cost them N3.5 million. Again, a pothole cannot be repaired using asphalt during the rainy season because it will be washed away and put the road in a worse state than it was before repair. With Velocity, because we use emulsion which will stick and key into the edges of the repaired potholes and the road, we repair while it is raining and the repair stays strong.
There have been calls for the use of cement instead of asphalt to construct roads because cement is believed to be cheaper, accessible and can easily be used to patch a tiny hole before it begins to widen, unlike asphalt which is very expensive and inaccessible and thereby causes users to wait on the government to fix roads. What is your take on this?
So many parameters are involved in doing roads. There is something called skid ratio. When you hit the car brake, it is the impact between the tires and the pavement. There is higher skid ratio on a paved road than an asphaltic road, because a paved road is smooth and when you step on your brake, your car skids more. But on asphalt, it holds. There is more friction between the tires and the road when driving on a road constructed with asphalt. That is why states and countries are sticking to asphalt rather than take to cement.