Kwara govt appeals to FG over damaged bridges, roads

The state Commissioner for Works and Transports, Engineer Rotimi Illiasu, made the appeal while conducting on the spot assessment on the areas alongside the Director of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in the state, Engineer Jato Abdulakeem.

“Our appeal to the Federal Government and Federal Ministry of Works, in particular, is that they should speed up the work on the new bridge that will serve as a permanent solution to the ancient iron bridge, in the interest of citizens and motorists plying the road on daily basis.

“Another appeal is to our representatives at the National Assembly, although, we have been engaging them and they also assured us that they will follow it up during the budget presentation and also visit the minister of Works on our federal roads, because all our federal roads are not in good condition, and we believe that very short time we will start seeing changes on our federal roads”.

Among the Federal roads mentioned to be in bad conditions were Olorunsogo/Geri-Alimi, and Asa-Dam/Offa-Garage.

Speaking on palliative measures to make the iron bridge more motorable, the commissioner says he was in contact with the contractor handling the repair and he had assured him that it will be completed before the end of this week.

“The contractor has commenced another palliative work on the iron bridge, I am in regular contact with him, and he has assured me that the palliative works on the bridge will be completed before the end of this week.

“But, what we are actually after is how the new bridge will be completed on time. It’s our job to keep reminding appropriate quarters and we will keep pushing until we get desired results.”

The commissioner also stated that his ministry will keep reminding FERMA on the earlier letter forwarded to the agency on the state of Oyun road in Ilorin that is washed-off.

“Oyun road, close to bridge is another bad road, it was a road that started by the last administration, it is a Federal road that state was looking at doing and getting a refund, but, there are processes of doing federal road to ensure refund, but unfortunately those processes were not followed, they started that road and they were not getting fund, and at a point, they abandoned work on the road and there was some part they did not do very well. Meanwhile, Federal have come back to do maintenance on it, in fact that very particular part that is washed-off, we have written FERMA and they assured us of action on it very soon.” Engr. Illiasu said.

Speaking on the efforts of the Federal Government and his agency on the Moro Bailey bridge in Alapa road and other federal roads in the state, the Director of FERMA, Engr. Jato Abdulakeem said “Bailey bridge was a substandard bridge, in the sense that it was not designed to accommodate heavy vehicles and to that extent, it was making a lot of impacts on the panels and beams, whenever it happens like that, as a federal agency, we always respond and do palliative repair on it to ensure that it is motorable again.

“We are aware of the current bad condition of the bridge, but, it is the Federal Ministry of Works that is doing the palliative now, due to the reason that they are the one executing the ongoing new bridge project, so they ask them to do the palliative work, which they are already doing”

Also speaking on Oyun road, along the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, where a particular part is washed-off, due to erosion, Engr. Jato said the FERMA state office has forwarded the letter and proposal to the Abuja office, and immediately after the approvals come out, they will set on the road for the repair.