By SUNDAY ABBA, Abuja
The Minister of Works, Engineer David Umahi, has stated that arbitrary increase in road contract sum will be condoned under his watch even as he lamented the ubiquitous road failures and reiterated that contractors bidding for projects must deploy concrete road technology and not compromise standards.
A statement from the ministry’s directorate of Information and Public Relations on Monday said, “He told some of the road contractors where he inspected that no one would increase contract price under him and a single lane must be followed to the end where the job is less than 50% on any ongoing dual carriageway under construction.”
Since his assumption of office, Umahi has embarked on several road inspections in the South West , South East, and now touring the North Central and South South Geo-Political Zones of the country.
Umahi during his inspection of Gada- Biyu Bridge bound 1 & 2 on the Lokoja – Abuja road on Sunday directed contractor in charge of the project to reconstruct the failed sections of the road earlier constructed by the company.
“We have so many failed portions of the road , they have to go round and give me the list of failed portions of the road before returning to work to reconstruct them and stone base must be used, not dust base,” he said.
In order to ensure that contractors do their jobs up to quality standards, the Minister said going forward reputable consultants must be engaged who could be held accountable in the even of untimely failure of road.
“We must get a reputable consultant to supervise the road construction so that when the road fails we can hold them accountable. Something must be done to change from the present situation of how we construct our roads; our roads should be constructed on concrete, he said, while inspecting Phase II of Lokoja –Okene road in Kogi State.
Umahi has also directed that the Ministry should review the road works of another construction company and revert to his office within seven days , reiterating that every road being constructed must have a consultant because majority of the job done have all failed because they were not built with concrete.
Some of the roads inspected on Sunday included the : Dualisation of Abuja -Lokoja Road Section II , Sheda – Abaji; Gada Biyu bridge bound 1 & 2 Lokoja ; Rehabilitation and Construction of Abuja -Lokoja Road ; Lokoja – Benin Road ; Okene –Auchi – Benin road (Kogi /Edo States ) ; Obajana Junction –Benin Road Section II ; dualisation of Auchi –Ehor Section II Benin Way and Agbor –Ewu road project in Uromi , Edo State.