By Alice Etuka, Abuja
The Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi has urged Julius Berger Plc to expedite the construction of Enugu road to ameliorate hardship experienced by road users.
This was the outcome of the crucial meeting of the Ministry with the management of Julius Berger Plc held at the Ministry’s Headquarters earlier in the week.
Speaking on the resolutions reached during the meeting, the Minister reiterated his Ministry’s stand on issues of price control, commitment of contractors to project execution, value for money, and uniform pricing location by location.
He decried the unacceptable conditions of some of the inherited and new projects being handled by Julius Berger Plc, which were being delayed due to issues of price differentials or lack of effective funding.
He listed the projects affected to include:
“The 82 km by 2 dualization of section of Abuja-Kaduna- Zaria- Kano Highway currently handled by Julius Berger; phase 2 of Lagos-Ibadan expressway, whose pavement elements had been changed from asphalt to concrete; section 2A bypass at the 2nd Niger Bridge whose pavement element was changed to concrete; the Bodo-bonny road funded by NLNG Tax Credit; the under deck structural works at 3rd Mainland bridge, Iddo bridge and Carter Bridge”.
Umahi urged the contractor to be open to a mutually agreed modality for milestone execution and funding of the projects at reviewed rates as may be agreed upon and approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
He said, “our job is to develop this mechanism based on FEC directives, and engage with the Honourable Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, and finally we take our recommendations back to Mr. President, and of course FEC for consideration.”
On the section of Abuja Kaduna- Zaria-Kano road agreed to be handled by Julius Berger Plc, he commended the quality of work being done but directed the contractor to stick to one carriageway at a time within the scope and conclude their work.
The contractor was further directed to, within three weeks, fill the two carriageways with stone base and level it to alleviate the sufferings of road users. “We agreed that this project, within their own corridor, will last for 14 months. Project execution should be deployed in four sections, and we’ll be paying Berger ₦20 billion every month to get the job completed”, Umahi said.
On the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, phase 2, he said the Ministry had no choice but to determine the contract and ask Bureau of Public Procurement for No Objection for selective tendering.
With regards to the Bodo-Bonny project being funded by NLNG Tax Credit, the Minister expressed concerns that Julius Berger Plc, though mobilised back to site after additional cost of N80 billon was approved for the work, reports still showed that their pace of work was slow. He was further worried that they came up with a longer timeline of 16 months within which to deliver the project against the December 2024 deadline proposed by the Ministry.
On the Odukpani road in Cross River State, the Minister said, “we have got approval from Federal Executive Council to increase their project by ₦36 billion, thereby raising the project cost from ₦54 billion to ₦90 billion”.
In his remarks, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Yakubu Kofarmata stated that some of the ongoing road projects handled by contractors required emergency work to alleviate the sufferings of road users and assured that all the supervising engineers would be on their toes to ensure the Ministry’s policy of Operation Free our Roads was carried out by all the contractors handling federal government roads nationwide.
