Why roads collapsing while under construction in South East—-Umahi
2 min read
By Chris Ochayi
The Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi has cited wrong design as reason roads in the South East are collapsing even while they are under construction.
Engr. Umahi, who spoke during a meeting with members of Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN, held recently in his office, lamented that roads built in Nigeria cannot last more than three to four years even in the Northern part of the country.
According to him, “The roads in the South East are collapsing even while still under construction. The design in the roads are mostly built below the flood plain and the rains comes,and they are washed away.”
The Minister noted that, “I want to involve COREN and the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) in our road construction, l have gone round three regions of Nigeria, I am very dissatisfied with the supervision of these construction works.
“It seems that it is only in the South West that there are very capable hands and hard working Directors and controllers, notwithstanding, will put the same template to use in all the regions.
“We would like you to join us as COREN , there is no concrete road constructed in Ebonyi that has not lasted Seven years,our recommendation is that most of our highways are going to be a continuous reinforced highways, this is the vision of the Ministry.”
Umahi stated further that, “When growing up in engineering we use to have consultant , consultant would always know that if they compromised their certificate of practice will be withdrawn even at the ministry level , that is the kind of discipline we want to bring on our road infrastructure.
“There is no supervision in all our projects , like I said other than the South West. Henceforth every project is going to have one senior consultant later we can begin to have other junior ones , like surveyor , geotechnical and material engineers and other road engineers “
The Minister enjoined COREN to join him in the propagation for the reintroduction of Concrete pavement in Nigeria.
