"Our Roads Are Not As Bad As People Say They Are” - Fashola

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, says Nigeria’s road surfaces are not as deplorable as the public have made them out to be.

Speaking to State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday, November 6, 2019, Fashola also blamed poor funding and how long it takes to acquire materials for road works, for the poor performance of his ministry since 2015.

“The roads are not as bad as they are often portrayed. I know that this is going to be your headline, but the roads are not that bad,” Fashola said.

“When I come here to announce that a particular amount was approved for a contract, that doesn’t mean the amount has been paid, contrary to what you suggest.

“You are mindful also that minister of finance, different arms of government are escalating the fiscal challenges we face as a nation in trying to fund the budget.

"You are also mindful that the last few budgets in Nigeria for almost 20 years have been deficit budgets and these are terminologies that are realities and I think we should acquaint ourselves with if we are not just to report the news but also educate the public.

“You must also be aware that between awarding a contract and also mobilizing to the site, there is a distance. First of all, we have to have an agreement that there is the relationship between the ministry of works or any other ministry and the ministry of justice, then there is a role that banks play, they have to give a guarantee.

Read also: Winners Church To Repair Sango-Ota, Idiroko, Oju-Ore Roads, Approves ₦650million

“Building materials – rocks, laterite, quarry, iron rods have to be ordered, construction companies don’t keep them.

“The process of producing blasting rocks requires approval from the office of ministers of justice and even the office of the NSA to get approval to get dynamite. All of these are the things that go on. So the point that I am making to you is that there is a distance between approval, implementation, actual construction and the result.”

The rains are blamed as well

The minister also said continuous rainfall has hampered road repair works country-wide.

“So what we experienced this year is unusual, it’s not a good time to be in the transport system. We also want this season to quickly end so that we can go back to work during the dry weather.”

The minister assured Nigerians that massive road repair works will commence when the harmattan season kicks off.

Nigeria’s road surfaces have been described as pot-hole and crater ridden across all geopolitical regions for years.

Most travellers have been forced to make the journey across the country by air instead, with robbers and kidnappers further turning road travel into an extreme sport. 

Fashola was appointed Minister of Power, Works and Housing by President Buhari in 2015. After the president won re-election in 2019, Fashola was stripped of the power portfolio and was left with the works and housing beats.

Fashola, 56, served as governor of Nigeria’s most populous city of Lagos from 2007 to 2015. He came in for enormous flak as power minister; with darkness remaining the lot of many Nigerians with the former governor at the helm.

Update From Various Construction Sites In Lagos As Mandated By Sanwo-Olu - Photos

FG To Return Toll Gates On Federal Roads In Nigeria

THE Federal Government on Wednesday said that plans were at the advanced stage to return toll gate on the federal highways.

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola disclosed this while briefing State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa Abuja.

Fashola, flanked by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said there was no law that stopped the government from having toll gate on federal roads.

He said, “There is no reason why we can’t toll, there was a policy of the government to abolish tolls or as it were, dismantle toll plaza but there is no law that prohibits tolling in Nigeria today. We expect to return toll plazas, We have concluded their designs of what they will look like, what materials they will be rebuilt with, what new considerations must go into them.

“What we are looking at now and trying to conclude is how the bank end runs.”

He said that the government was also considering to eliminate the payment of cash by introducing electronic mode of payment.

The Minister further disclosed that government needed to acquire more lands to expand the width of the toll gates as it proposed to have a ten-lane.

An Overview of The Loko-Oweto Bridge, The Bridge Linking Benue And Nasarawa States

Many may not have heard of the Loko-Oweto Bridge. The Loko-Oweto Bridge is a bridge that will connect the Benue and Nasarawa States. It is an 18km bridge that has been going on close to 3yrs but we are yet to see the conclusion. Now, the team handling this project are ending the logical end, but the PM has its ups and downs moment.

According to Alon Peysin, the project manager at RCC Nigeria, he wrote

In September 2016 I was in position of Bridge/Project Engineer in Loko-Oweto Bridge project team. The project is 2 parallel bridge constructed by the balanced cantilever method. The length of the Bridges is 1835 m included 24 axes. To overcome large thermal expansion of the bridge 4 expansion joints were designed. Two expansion joints are in the middle of the spans.

The expansion joint between axes is designed to transfer bending moment and shear forces between 2 parts of bridges and allow free axial expansion.

As Bridge Engineer, I received the task to plan and execute the installation of the middle span girders of expansion joint.  After a case study, I could only find that the same solution was implemented in the world in Otay River Bridge in the US.

We planned all the details.
We checked the position of the crane on top of the barge.
We created the light model of the beam to test the installation, it helped us to learn a lot of new details we didn't think before.
The installation of 2 beams took a couple of days and it was very successful.

I am so proud that I was part of a team of such great project.

The Loko-Oweto Bridge is an 18km bridge project which is in two phases will connect Benue with Nasarawa State. The Director pointed out that the 103 km Otukpo-Apa-Oweto road was ready for inauguration and the whole bridge will be ready and handed over to the Federal Government for inauguration in May.

The bridge upon completion, will provide a vital link between the North, South, East and West part of the country as well as enhance the socio-political and economic activities in the country.

This bridge will open up the North-Central and it will in turn spring up development, because it will spur transportation and businesses in the two states. In the recent past, older generations trekked a whole day to reach Nasarawa State or waited for hours by the river bank for local canoes to ferry them across the river.

 

Ogun State Begins Desilting Of Blocked Drainages Across the State - Photos

Just as Lagos, Ogun State is putting its house in order by making sure its drainage is free from dirt and blockages from the drainage. The Ogun State Public Works Agency team have begun the desilting of the heavily blocked drain and culverts at Opic-Iwe Iroyin axis in Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta. Palliative work has also been done on the road to ensure a free flow of traffic as well.

It will be recalled that the state government has mandated the team to ensure that the drainages, roads are free from floods.

These are pictures from the desilting of the drainages in Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta.

Lagos Begins Night Road Construction Across The State, See Their Timetable

The Lagos State Government has embarked on massive road rehabilitation across the state. The unit charged with road maintenance and construction, the Lagos State Public Works Corporation has started work in full force but this time, with a twist. Having studied the ever-busy Lagos, they have decided to work at nights.

A list which was obtained by AutoReportNG shows that they have time-tables for every part of the state.

For Wednesday night, for example, they are working on Ikeja, Apapa, Apapa, Mushin, Eti-Osa etc roads. 14 roads for night rehabilitation work across 11 Local Government areas tonight 17th July 2019

These are some of the work they have done this week as obtained by AutoReportNG

See their time-table below...

Are These True Reflections of 2nd Niger Bridge?

AutoReportNG did a reportage on The Truth State of 2nd Niger Bridge some weeks ago where we reported first-hand information from the site. Well, the federal ministry of works seem to have a different picture entirely as they have released their pictures insisting that work is on-going at 2nd Niger Bridge. These are some of the pictures