Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi has said that his ministry would as a matter of urgency undergo rehabilitation of 260 roads alongside 8 Bridges to the tune of 217 billion Naira.
Umahi disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday, October 5, 2023, while inaugurating four committees to supervise projects in the Southern part of the country.
He informed that a list of the roads to be worked on was compiled following outcries from commuters:
“Let me graciously announce that the ministry contacted Mr President on 260 projects that need immediate and quick intervention across the federation.
“The projects were from the motions of the national assembly, the outcry of the public, and compilations from our controllers of our states and the total cost is N217bn.
“We have sent it to Mr president and the national assembly is aware and he has directed that we submit it to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for discussions”, Umahi said.
Highlighting the road specifications, the Minister said, “we will use one-foot-thick concrete to rebuild the road. We are already working on the bills to redefine it.
“The roads will be exposed to traffic for 60 days then we will put 10cm stone base and 10 cm treated with 5 percent cement. It is going to be exactly what HiTech is doing on Apapa-Oshodi road.”
He further informed that, for the sake of transparency, journalists and supervisors would reside at the site of the construction throughout the work:
“Let me add that the Nigerian Union of Journalists should be contacted to provide full transparency on these projects. They will be reporting what is going on site as this will be used as a case study of our new policies and new intention to redefine our road sector.
“The President has given a marching order to fix these roads and we will give our best to fix it. Each project will not last more than 18 months,” he said.
The Former Ebonyi State Governor further announced that President Tinubu has approved and released funds for several projects in the country such as the rehabilitation of the third mainland bridge in Lagos state.
He said; “Last week, we had a lot of failures on our East-West Road between Warri and Cross Rivers. We had twelve points that totally collapsed and if we have another flood, the entire section may collapse.
“Three bridges totally collapsed and we have to reconstruct all of those roads.
“I will also announce that Mr. President has not only approved but released money for the immediate attention of these twelve points and three bridges that collapsed on our East-West roads between Warri and Cross Rivers.
“Another intervention approved by the president is the reconstruction of Shendam-Lafia bridge and Enugu bridge that collapsed a week ago and the president has released money for the reconstruction of those two bridges.
“I want to thank the president very highly on behalf of the ministry for this. The projects are being worked upon so that we can allay the fears of our people. These are life-threatening emergencies and we must move very fast to begin on all those roads”.
Umahi further restated his position on building roads using concrete saying that all new road projects must be planned on concrete:
“Let me also advise our contractor that no new project under my leadership will be done on asphalt. We are doing all our projects on concrete. Let it be known that it is our policy. Any contractor that can’t cope, is not compulsory.
“On ongoing projects, if you have done 80 percent, we expect the contractors to complete it without asking for an increment. All ongoing project has N6 trillion funding gap and we can’t increase our projects.
“We will not do any variation of price on asphalt any longer. When I came into the office, bitumen was N576,000 per tonne, today the same product is N1 million. I won’t attend FEC meetings asking for variations.
“We are going to do more committees or task force in order to see the completion of most of our ongoing projects.
“Most of our deputy directors see going to be out on the field, and the regional director will spend one week on the field every month”, he said.
The Four different Committees that were inaugurated are to supervise the following projects;
Reconstruction of Benin- Warri dual Carriageway ( Section 1 by Levant Construction Company Limited.)
Reconstruction Of Benin-warri Dual Carriageway (Section 11: By Geld Construction Company Limited/Triata Nigeria Limited (Jv).
Reconstruction Of Benin – Warri Dual Carriageway (Section III: By Skcc Nigeria Limited).
Dualization Of East-west Road, Section Iii: Port Harcourt (Eleme Junction)-Onne Port Junction Road in Rivers State.
