By Iyabo Adebisi
The Minister of Works, Mr David Umahi has advocated the use of newly introduced Concrete Pavement Technology, in road construction projects for its durability and cost effectiveness compared to asphalt roads.
He stated this while addressing journalists during an inspection tour of Abeokuta-Ibadan Road project.
The minister is on two-day working visit to Oyo State to tour federal government road projects in the South West.
The Minister of Works while making reference to the Abeokuta-Ibadan road project which commenced in 2010 said if government had built the route on concrete pavement, it would not have to re-construct it.
Mr Umahi who expressed concern on the slow pace of work on Abeokuta-Ibadan road dualisation, commended the contractor handling it and the Oyo state government for maintaining the road.
He said: “We are inspecting the rehabilitation of single lane of Abeokuta-Ibadan road. And that is phase one, phase two supposed to be the dualisation and that makes my expectations in terms of phasing the job. The road started in 2010 and it is starting with the Ibadan axis by Kopek Nigeria Limited”.
“As we can see, the entire shoulders have totaling gone. We have lots of failures on the roads but I must commend the contractors and I also commend the governor of Oyo State. I can see a lot of maintenance on the road and this is exactly what we are talking about. If we have built this route on concrete Pavement,13 years ago, we will not be maintaining or re-constructing it. So, the section of Abeokuta in Ogun State has not been done by KOPEK because of funding”.
“Now, what is to be done is that, a number of sections of the pavement that have totaling gone must be remedied and the entire stretch up to 77 per cent will need to be resurfaced by stone based asphalts and then, the shoulders restarted with concrete pavement”.
“And of course the section of about 23 per cent on Abeokuta axis ought to be constructed. The delay in payment is very unpalatable for a project to last for 13 years and that is the kind of things we are having and that is the system we want to change“.
Mr Umahi had earlier paid a courtesy call on Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State to discuss on having standard federal roads in the state.
During the visit, Governor Makinde noted that the present administration in Oyo State had fixed some federal roads that have viable economic importance to the state, adding that Ibadan-Iseyin road has been so useful for Agribusiness hubs across the zones of the state.
While appreciating the Federal Ministry of works for construction and rehabilitation of some major roads in the state, governor Makinde also disclosed that the State is considering the dualization of Ibadan- Abeokuta road from Iyaganku to Oyo/Ogun State border.
The minister in an interview, on the refund of federal road executed by state government, said Federal government would not be able to refund money spent on federal roads by state governments presently considering the state of economic realities.
Mr Umahi however, said that records of such road projects done by the states would be kept and could be revisited when the nation’s economy improved.
Federal roads toured by the Minister includes rehabilitation of Ibadan-Oyo dual carriageway, dualisation of Oyo-Ogbomoso road, dualisation of Ibadan-Abeokuta and the reconstruction of Ibadan -Ife Ilesha.
On the encourage of the Minister of Works were the Director High way, South-West, Adedamola Kuti, and the controllers of Works in the South-West states.
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