On Friday, the Minister of Works, Sen Dave Umahi said the Federal Government will redesign the Akure/ Ado Ekiti road by embracing concrete road for the construction of the road and other roads in Nigeria for durability purposes.
Umahi, who disclosed this in Akure, Ondo state capital, during the inspection of Federal roads said the option of using concrete for roads in the country will be to the benefit as it has more life span than Bitumen roads.
According to the minister, concrete roads are cheaper in terms of construction cost with guaranteed quality construction materials, while it has a life span of 50 years, saying asphalt roads can only last for 15 years.
Speaking during his visit to the Acting Governor of Ondo State, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa, while on inspection of federal roads in the South-West region of the country, said that concrete roads had been tested
He said any road construction contract that is still under 20 percent done would be redesigned to concrete pavement roads, explaining that the new concrete road construction innovation is low-maintenance cost.
He said that the importation of bitumen has been putting more pressure on the Naira, and with the use of concrete pavement roads, it would be more of local content.
He said, “A very important thing that I must let you know is the issue introduction of concrete technology in our roads. My argument is that you see a lot of roads that are built on concrete with a shelve life of 50 years.
“But there is no asphalt road here, especially in South-South, South-East, and South-West, even if it’s done by top contractors, will not last more than 15 years.
”You see jobs that are still ongoing, and that is why we are going around and then redesigning a portion of roads that are maybe 10 to 20 percent completion, and we are sure that this is the way to go, and it has a guarantee of 50 years.
“Not only that, you find out that we are having so much pressure on the Naira, the importation of bitumen is a lot pressure on the Naira, so cement is a local content, almost everything we need not being produced in Nigeria.
“Now local content, The high cost of petroleum products, and the industry’s very volatile nature is another point.
“Almost all our projects that are awarded three years ago are due for review; some have been reviewed through VOP (variation of price), and so it doesn’t leave us with an assurance that if a project is started it would appropriated for and it could be completed,”
The Works minister said that road construction was a dynamic sector as materials’ prices kept on soaring and varying, and despite all, the guarantee for road might not last for the designed life span.
“Let me put it on record that bitumen imported in the 1950s, 1960s are of more quality that what we have today so we have alot of problems in our hand and that’s why we are of courageous to introduce the concrete road department,” he said.
While speaking, Ayedatiwa commended the zeal of the new minister and called his attention to sorry state of most federal roads in the state, saying many of them suffered severe degradation
The Ondo acting governor, however, called for the dualization of the Ore-Ondo-Akure road and said there is a need for the rehabilitation of the Ore-Okitipupa axis among other federal roads in the state.
“It is noteworthy to mention that my boss’s intervention is principally what has made these roads remain in their present motorable state,” Ayedatiwa said.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
—
