South-East States’ Road Projects Are Stopped by the Nigerian Government, Dave Umahi, a former governor of Ebonyi State and the current minister of works, halted certain road development in the South-East area on Wednesday while reviewing the existing and new contracts.

    The minister expressed shock at the N15 billion cost of the additional three kilometers of work and four bridges.

    Dave Umahi, a former governor of Ebonyi State and the current minister of works, halted certain road development in the South-East area on Wednesday while reviewing the existing and new contracts.

    The order was given by Umahi on Thursday in Enugu State while inspecting several federal roads in the South-East that are currently being built or repaired.

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    The minister expressed shock at the N15 billion cost of the additional three kilometers of work and four bridges.

    “I’ve told ministry directors to sit down with the contractors and go over it,”

    When a project is too expensive and the budgeting procedure is very poor, contractors will stay on site for 10 to 15 years, he asserted. “I strongly believe that there is no way that the project will cost us more than three to four billion naira.”

    The Ozalla- Akpugo-Amangunze-Isu Onicha (Enugu-Onitsha) with a spur to Onunwere in Enugu State and the repair of the Old Enugu-Onitsha road, both completed by Arab Contractors, were among the roads that were examined.

    Others included the building of the Nenwe-Nomeh-Mburubu-Nara road in Enugu State with a spur from the Obeagu-Oduma road and the rehabilitation of the Nsukka-Ikem and Eha Amufu-Nkalagu roads in Ebonyi State.

    Umahi praised the caliber of the work completed on some of the Enugu roads, but he said that he had suspended making some payments until the ministry and contractors had examined the current contracts and new work.

    The former governor of Ebonyi claimed he withheld payments to RCC and Arab Contractors until everyone had a chance to discuss the projects’ costs and building techniques.

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    He also gave the Mmaku road’s contractor seven days to come back and finish the binder course.

    In order to reduce expenses, he also ordered that concrete be used on the Enugu-Onitsha expressway’s right side.

    “I found something unethical where contractors install a binder course and leave it up to five to eight years, and within that time the binder course fails,” the author said.

    The binder course admits water, which damages the subgrade, thus going forward, no contractor will leave it uncovered for longer than a month.

    “It is not healthy for contractors as they lose money for the equipment they are using to maintain the work,” he claimed.

    The binder course is a layer of intermediate bitumen-bound aggregate positioned between the base layer and the asphalt pavement’s surface, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

    The minister added that Nigerian roads were ineffective because of the subpar asphalt that was applied to them as a result of the country’s importation of contaminated bitumen.

    He claims that the majority of roads fail due to poor asphalt application rather than sub-base or subgrade.

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