FG commences rehabilitation of Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway, others

AFTER solving the difficulty in getting a work yard, which has been the real reason for the delay, the Federal government has finally begins commenced the rehabilitation of Enugu-Port Harcourt  express way as contractor already mobilised to the site.

As at last week, personnel from Messrs CGC Nigeria Limited had already working on the section III Enugu -Lokpanta in Enugu and Abia States.

Apart from Enugu-Port Harcourt-Aba road, listed under top priority are: Sokoto – Tambuwal – Makera-Kontagara Road where work is ongoing; Sokoto-Kebbi-Niger States; Ilorin-Jebba Road, – (Kwara State); Loko-Oweto Bridge, ( Nasarawa/Benue States); Shagamu-Ibadan, (Oyo-Ogun State); Shagamu–Lagos, (Lagos-Ogun State); Ogbomosho-Oko-Ilogbo-Osogbo , -(Oyo-Osun State).

Others, as listed by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, include

Funtua-Katsina,(Katsina State);Wukari-Akwana, (Taraba State) and Abriba–Arochukwu– Ohafia, (Abia State), while Abuja–Lokoja–Airport, (FCT/ Kogi State) are already receiving attention.

However, to ensure that no zone is neglected, the ministry also include in its priority list, Oji-Achi-Obeagu-Mmaku-Awgu-Ndeaboh-Mpu-Okpanku , -(Enugu State); Ajase Ipo–Offa–Erinle–Osun State Boundary, (Kwara State); Ikot Ekpene Border-Aba–Owerri Dualisation and others Imo and Akwa Ibom States respectively.

According to Fashola, the first contract was awarded in 2014, but received little funding, until releases were made from the 2016 budget.

The Enugu-Port-Harcourt project, said Fashola, would make possible the engagement of 400 local staff and deployment of 102 sets of equipment.

The Minister while re-stating his earlier defenses on why many roads are yet to get attention, noted that the ministry inherited about 206 road projects already contracted out; with outstanding completion costs in the region of N1.5 trillion.

“Although, the works ministry shares of the 2016 appropriation was N260 billion, which was a lot more than the 2015 budget of only N18 Billion that the last administration left, it is a drop in the ocean against the liabilities that were outstanding to contractors.

“Our interactions with contractors showed that many of them had not been paid for an average of two to three years before we resumed, and this explained the stoppage of works, by the contractors, the layoff of workers, and consequently poor condition of many roads.

“With limited resources against liabilities and with debts already owed, we had to make difficult choices of deciding which of the 206 roads under contract we should start with, and how many and that was informed those we categorised as priority,” said the Minister, noting that though, all roads are economic roads but that some were more urgent and more impactful than others.

Contrary to the insinuation that undue preference involved in road selection for repairs, the minister noted that choices were determined by roads that carried the heaviest cargo, to allow farmers, businessman, industries and travellers move their goods and themselves across the country in order to drive productive activity.

“Secondly, we chose roads that support our energy sufficiency and put our resources in roads leading to and from petroleum tank farms so that we can move petro, diesel and kerosene across Nigeria.

“We also chose roads that led to and from our major sea and airports so that maritime business can go on, to drive the economy.

Therefore, we re-mobilized contractors back to work on roads across the 6 (SIX) Geo-Political zones.

We also paid consultants who are supervising these roads and had been denied payment for 2 to 3 years. This has helped to recover lost jobs, and put some money back in circulation, as part of a government strategy to build out of this recession.

“As I said during our first briefing, our short-term objectives are to complete uncompleted road contracts, restore motorability back to as many roads as possible, improve journey times and reduce the cost of travel for commuters, which I think we are already doing”.

He cited Benin-Ore-Ijebu Ode expressway, where a significant reconstruction had already taken place and sanity fully restored.

In the medium to long term, the ministry intends to cover more roads as available resources permit, and increase the maintenance capacity of road assets to ensure that highways are not neglected again in the manner it has been done over the years to the collective detriment of everybody.

The minister restated the plans by the ministry on the need to restore the authority of all the states controllers of works, which he said would engender maintenance competence.

“They will be charged with the responsibility for all federal roads within their states posting, and to bring up an annual budget that will be submitted to the Parliament. With this, Nigeria roads would be free from abuses they had suffered hitherto.

Besides, this will help in decentralise authority over road maintenance, vest responsibility on the people who are on ground and closer to the roads so that they can resurface damaged roads, clear over-grown vegetation, enforce axle-load compliance, install signs and lane marking and gradually restore our highways back to contemporary quality.

Fashola stated that for this year, government has developed proposals for the budget to intervene in critical roads in the six Geo-political zones that lead to and from major food producing states based on information supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture.

“We plan to do the same for states that produce minerals from mining activity, and for states where we have strategic fuel depots.

“For decades, we have paid almost no attention to bridges built across the country as though they are indestructible.

“We are beginning to see erosion, stress, and in some cases failures and near collapse in Kano (Tamburawa), Lagos (Ijora), Kogi (Lokoja) Ogun (Long bridge on Lagos-Ibadan) Kaduna (Jaji) and other places.