Umahi bemoans dilapidated federal roads in Anambra, South-East

The Minister of Works, Chief David Umahi, has decried the poor state of federal roads in the South-East geo-political zone, especially in Anambra and Ebonyi states. Umahi made his feelings known during a courtesy call on the Anambra Governor, Prof. Charles Soludo, on Saturday night in Awka. The Minister said Anambra and Ebonyi were competing for the worst in terms of poor federal road projects in the country. He said that he had recently visited Imo, Abia, Enugu and Ebonyi states before coming to Anambra, saying that the situation is the same on the state of federal roads. Umahi, who before meeting Soludo had inspected the Enugu-bound lane of the Onitsha/Enugu Expressway, passed a vote of no confidence on the consultants supervising the reconstruction of the road. He regretted that the handlers of the very busy road were exposing road users to untold hardship. “I am a bit disappointed with the state of Enugu/Onitsha expressway; I have called both the contractors and consultants to a meeting this evening with the Governor. “I have equally passed a vote of no confidence on the consultants,” he said. He directed the firm to immediately rehabilitate the bad spots, which have caused vehicles to fall and other sundry hiccups on the Enugu-Onitsha expressway. The Minister said he was personally concerned due to a series of calls and complaints coming from the same road. “While MTN Nigeria says they have 100 per cent funding, the chairman of RCC construction firm, will say the opposite, complaining of funding problem. “We will all meet and sort out these problems because we cannot have one or two contractors doing 200 kilometers of road for seven years,” he said. Umahi, who noted that states in the South-East geo-political zone were not fairly treated on MTN Nigeria Tax Credit decision, said he was confident that Mr President would look into the matter in due course. “Yes, Enugu and Abia states benefitted, but that cannot be compared with other zones which got on the MTN Nigeria Tax Credit sharing formula. “I know as a man of justice and equity, President Bola Tinubu will look into the matter because development thrives on fairness and equity,” he said. Responding, Governor Soludo said he was overwhelmed when President Tinubu appointed Umahi his minister of works. “Umahi’s appointment is a prayer answered for me because it is like a perfect round peg in a round hole,” he said. He regretted that the entire federal roads in Anambra were all bad, adding that urgent actions were needed to reduce the sufferings facing road users on the roads. Soludo who appealed to the minister to replicate what he did on road construction in Ebonyi across the country, advocated for what he tagged mega-budget for road projects. According to him, the initiative would encourage the National Assembly to make adequate budgetary provisions for road projects which have lasted more than four years. He said when this is done, government would no longer required to talk about budgetary allocation on existing roads yearly, but would be spending on already approved fund to end problem of poor funding,” he said. Before the courtesy visit, Umahi visited Enugu/Onitsha Expressway, Oye-Oranto Ukpo Road in Dunukofia, and Otuocha-Iheaka-Ibaji Roads.

Umahi stops payments to South East road contractors

The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi has stopped some road construction in the South East pending the review of the existing and additional contracts. Umahi gave the directive on Thursday in Enugu during the inspection of some ongoing construction/rehabilitation of federal roads across states in the South-East. The minister expressed dismay that four bridges and three kilometres of additional work were costing N15 billion. “I have directed directors in the ministry to sit with the contractors and review it. “I strongly believe that there is no way that the project will cost us more than three to four billion naira, and when a project is too expensive, and the budgeting process is very low, then contractors will remain on site for 10 to 15 years,” he said. Some of the roads inspected included the Ozalla- Akpugo-Amangunze-Isu Onicha (Enugu-Onitsha) with a spur to Onunwere in Enugu State done by Arab Contractors and rehabilitation of Old Enugu- Onitsha Road also done by Arab Contractors. Others were the construction of the Nenwe-Nomeh-Mburubu -Nara Road with a spur from Obeagu-Oduma road, Enugu State, Rehabilitation of Nsukka -Ikem, Eha Amufu – Nkalagu in Ebonyi State among others. Umahi commended the quality of work done on some of the roads in Enugu, adding that he stopped certain payments until contractors, and the ministry reviewed the existing contracts and additional works. The former Ebonyi governor said he stopped payment of RCC and Arab Contractors until they all sit down to review the cost of the projects and methods of construction. He also said because of funding he had directed works on spots should come in the second phase to enable contractors to complete carriage ways first. He equally directed the contractor handling the Mmaku road seven days to return to the site to cover the binder course. He also directed that the right-hand side of the Enugu-Onitsha expressway be done with concrete to save costs. “I discovered something unprofessional where contractors put a binder course and leave it up to five to eight years, and within that period, the binder course fails. “Henceforth, no contractor will leave the binder course for more than one month without covering it because the binder course admits water which affects subgrade. “It is not healthy for contractors as they lose money for the equipment they are using to maintain the work,” he said. The binder course is an intermediate, bitumen-bound aggregate layer placed between the base layer and the surface of an asphalt pavement. The minister explained that Nigerian roads failed because of the bad asphalt placed on them as a result of adulterated bitumen imported into the country.  According to him, most of our roads are not failing because of sub-base or subgrade but fail because of bad asphalt placed on them. “So the fight of turning to concrete is a continuous one, and we will not give up until our roads are able to last up to 30 years to 40 years without maintenance when built. “At Enugu section three to Port Harcourt section 3, I have also directed that the second carriage be totally done on concrete as we are safer with concrete in southeast roads,” he said. To buttress his point on the concrete road, Umahi, who took newsmen to Nigercem – the first cement factory in Nigeria, said the factory road built in 1950 with concrete was still stable as well as other roads in Nkalagu built with concrete seven years ago. “This is what we are advocating and basically, South East, South-South, and South-West roads shall be on concrete because of their terrain,” he said.