By Aanya Igomu-Olagunju, Abuja
Nigeria’s Minister of Works, David Umahi, says President, Bola Tinubu is interested and in full support of the use of concrete technology to build roads in the country.
The Minister stated this at a meeting with contractors handling projects in the North East Geo-political Zone of Nigeria.
While stating his reasons for introducing concrete technology, he said a performance bond will be demanded of contractors unwilling to use concrete for road constructions.
“We are introducing concrete road technology and some of you are not happy about it. Some are saying it is too expensive but we have to try the both and see which is better.
“In any case, any contractor with an on- going project that is not willing to cooperate with us for a redesign with concrete road technology which is fifty years period free of maintenance, we’ll demand for performance bond. The situation and time when roads are built on asphalt and within two to three years the project is back to square one is gone.
“We don’t witness this kind of construction pattern in developed countries, you came from developed countries so we are going to respect Engineering Best Practices in Nigeria. We will build a road that is going to last,” he said.
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The Minister further expressed displeasure at contractors who prolong road construction projects for upto 20 years adding that contractors should no longer stay on site for more than 4 years.
Also speaking on his recent meeting with contractors working on dual roads, he said the contractors were to at least complete on lane.
“I had recently met with contractors handling road dualization projects and my position on the issue is to take one lane and complete it because of paucity of fund, but with the availability of money they could start the second lane. We can manage with one lane instead of not having anything at all,” he said.
Mr. Umahi also stated the reasons for road failure which among others include, poor workmanship from contractors, importation of adulterated bitumen into the country and the laying of less than correct thickness of asphalt.
He stressed the need for these problems to be corrected to produce more durable roads across the country.
