FEC approves 14 road projects in flood-affected states

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the construction of 14 roads and bridges, which were badly affected by floods, in Ekiti State, Adamawa, Kebbi and Enugu states.

Works Minister David Unahi said this while addressing State House correspondents after the FEC meeting.

He said the others are in Cross River State, Ondo State, Osun State, Ebonyi, Abia and Imo states.

He said the roads were awarded, in addition to a contract for the repair and rehabilitation of Gamboru Bridge along Gambor-Ngala/Kala-Balge Road in Borno.

The minister said FEC also approved a new contract for the rehabilitation of Maraban-Kankara/Funtua Road in Katsina State and the construction of a 258-kilometer three-lane carriageway, a component of the 1,000 km Sokoto/Badagry Super-highway, Section 2, Phase 2A.

Likewise, he said FEC approved the contract for the construction and dualisation of Afikpo-Uturu-Okigwe Road in Ebonyi, Abia and Imo States (Section 2).

He said FEC similarly approved the contract for Bodo-Bonny Road in Rivers, to be executed by Julius Berger.

“FEC approved additional N80 billion to complete that project, bringing the total cost to N280 billion.

“The next is the Third Mainland Bridge, which was executed under emergency work,” he said.

He said at the time the present government assumed office, the Third Mainland Bridge was a nightmare.

“The deck had pavement differential of over one foot; that was causing a lot of accidents and hold up, and constituting dead load to the Third Mainland Bridge.

“So, that has been done and it also extended to Falamo and Queens Drive. It came with solar light, CCTV cameras, and relief stations, to eliminate road blockage,” he said.

He explained that when he came on board, Julius Berger sought to review the entire project.

“Don’t forget that the initial cost of the projects was N155 billion and the past administration reviewed it to N797 billion.

“Berger insisted that the reviewed contract sum should to N1.5 trillion. We didn’t have that money and the Coordinating Minister for the economy and myself went through the road and had strategic meeting with Berger,” said Umahi.

He said he eventually sought the approval of the president to break the projects into three so that two sections could be done on tax credit and Julius Berger could do one.

“So, the first section is 38 kilometre. It has not been brought to Council. It’s to be done with concrete.

“The second section is to be done by Berger and that is 82 kilometers by two, and it’s to be done with asphalt that they have been working with and the third section, which is just 17 kilometres is to be done on concrete,” he said.

He said FEC approved that of Julius Berger for a total contract sum of N740 billion. However, he said the other two were not presented for approval.

“If you remove approximately N400 billion paid by the last administration, then what is left is about N340 billion. That is what the contract sum for the 164 kilometre will be and that’s what FEC approved today,” Mr Umahi said.

The minister said the service lane on Lekki Deep Seaport road was approved for construction by FEC.

Lastly, he said he discovered that over 3,000 fuel trucks queuing to lift fuel at Dangote Refinery were all parked on the newly constructed Lekki-Calabar coastal highway.

“Technically and by design, the roads were never built for static loads, and so it has a lot of effects,” he said.

He said FEC approved that the federal government’s land in the area should be concessioned, so that concessioners could build a park.

“It’s a park that will be tolled so that all the trucks can safely park over there and the pavement of such a park is quite different from the pavement of the road,” said Mr Umahi.

(NAN)