The minister of Works, Sen Dave Umahi, at the weekend said the recently awarded Akure-Ita-Ogbolu-iju-Ado Ekiti road would be redesigned into a concrete pavement road.
Umahi who disclosed this during a courtesy visit to the Acting Governor of Ondo State, Hon. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, while on inspection of federal roads in the South-West region of the country, disclosed that Nigerians would see more concrete pavements on roads.
The reconstruction of the road was flagged off by the former Minister of Works, Mr. Babatunde Fashola in May 2023, shortly before the end of the last administration of Muhammadu Buhari.
But Umahi, when visiting the road, announced that concrete pavement roads have a longer life span than Bitumen roads.
According to the minister, concrete roads have been tested in several states and it has a life span of 50 years, compared to Asphalt roads which will only last for 15 years.
He further stated that any federal road construction contract that the job was not more than 20 percent done would be redesigned to concrete pavement roads.
While saying that the importation of bitumen alone was putting more pressure on the Naira, Umahi said with the use of concrete pavement roads, there would be more local content.
His words: “A very important thing that I must let you know is the issue of the introduction of concrete technology in our roads. My argument is that you see a lot of roads that are built on concrete with a life of 50 years.
“But there is no asphalt road here, especially in South-South, South-East, and South-West even if it’s done by top contractors it will not last more than 15 years.
‘’You see jobs that are still ongoing and that is why we are going round and redesigning a portion of roads that are maybe 10 to 20 percent complete and we are sure that this is the way to go and it has a guarantee of 50 years.
“Not only that, you find out that we are putting so much pressure on the Naira, the importation of bitumen is alotfpressuree Naira, so cement is a local content, almost everything we need is not being produced in Nigeria.
“Now local content, The high cost of petroleum products, and the very volatile nature of the industry is also another point.
Reacting, the Acting Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, congratulated the minister on his appointment and commended him for his zeal on his official engagements.
Aiyedatiwa said that most of the federal roads in the state were either deteriorated or poorly maintained, while many suffered severe degradation.
He, however, called for the dualization of the Ore-Ondo-Akure road and the need to rehabilitate the Ore-Okitipupa axis among other federal roads in the state.
Aiyedatiwa said, “It is noteworthy to mention that the intervention of my boss is principally what has made these roads remain in their present motorable state,”
