July 24, 2024
The Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, has said the Federal Government has it renewed commitment to completing the East-West Road project in order to unlock the full economic potentials of communities in the South South geo-political zone.
Umahi made the announcement while on an on the spot assessment of the project sites at the sites at section II: Kaiama- Ahoada in Rivers/ Bayelsa State.
The Minister explained that the President Bola Tinubu-led Renewed Hope administration remains committed to giving all regions the requisite environment to attain their full economic potentials and guarantee a sense of self actualization through the provision of long lasting infrastructure especially roads.
According to him, President Tinubu has introduced a more formidable measure of construction to end pavement failures and years of infrastructural neglect on the East West Road.
Speaking shortly after the inspection of work progress, the minister said that Federal Government redesigned the inherited ongoing project, using reinforced concrete technology to end the perennial pavement failures and years of road neglect across the wetland Niger Delta.
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He said some sections of the East-West Road starting from from Lokoja to Benin were also rescoped and redesigned in reinforced concrete, and that the height of the road was increased above the flood level, and that the redesign factored the peculiar environment, geomorphology and soil characteristics which were responsible for the failures of flexible pavement used over the years by successive administrations.
On the Kaiama-Ahoada section, Umahi said, “When we came on board, the job was already awarded by the past administration. And so the only new thing in all these locations under President Tinubu is the relief culverts that these two local contractors are putting, and are proving themselves to be of a very high reputation in terms of their works.
“We are encouraging many more local contractors to come and work, because there’s so much to work.”
He observed that the impact of climate change was largely responsible for the flood that came over the two sections of the road but commended the two contractors handling the relief culverts for their deep commitment to the intervention work despite having not been paid.
