Works minister David Umahi says President Bola Tinubu’s administration is putting an end to over three decades of substandard road construction in the country by implementing durable, high-quality infrastructure projects nationwide.
Speaking during the inspection of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road project on Tuesday, he said the Federal Government had adopted new engineering standards and technologies to ensure Nigerian roads last 50 to 100 years without major repairs.
He explained that roads constructed in the country for the past 30 years had been substandard, saying, “Because each administration works on them every time. The question you ask is actually why? The reason is because of our construction method, and that is why I tagged it that President Bola Tinubu is not constructing roads. He’s building roads.”
The minister added, “That is what I insisted, that we will use this road to show an example of what we can do when we have the courage to take the project from Julius Berger. But one significant thing the President is doing is building roads. Shortly, we will see the roads. What statement is the President making? He is telling you that the roads he is building under his administration are going to last between 50 and 100 years. You are not touching it.
“The problem of this country is that there are no major roads built in this country in the past 30, 40 years, which each administration has not been working on.”
Mr Umahi faulted the contractors’ method of road construction.
“When Julius Berger was doing the job, they removed the asphalt. They said they want to grind it with laterite. It is not a good construction method because they brought new laterite onto the road. There is what is called the California Bearing Ratio. It is the strength of the sub-base.
“So, when you remove this and you bring fresh laterite, the compaction and consolidation will not be as it has consolidated over the years. So, it is bound to fail, and that is why you see that what Julius Berger completed was beginning to see failures, even while they were still constructing,” Mr Umahi explained.
He, however, said the president was stopping this practice on the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano highway, which would last for 50 years. Mr Umahi assured Nigerians that Section 1 of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano project would be completed before the scheduled 12 months by February 2026.
He explained that section 1 started four kilometres into Kogi and ended at Katari, while section 2 would proceed accordingly.
(NAN)