The ray of hope was given over the weekend by the combined delegation from the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing as well as the Nigerian Ports Authority, which was on inspection tour of a 25-km Ibese-Itori concrete paved road in Yewa, Ogun State.
With Nigeria recording an economic loss of $1.5 billion annually due to failed roads, a case has been made to the federal and state governments to consider concrete-paved roads as a sustainable alternative to bituminous roads to avoid this economic loss.
The Ibese-Itori concrete paved road in Yewa, Ogun State constructed by AG Dangote Construction Nigeria Limited.
The leader of the delegation, Chief Mike Ajayi, GM Western Ports, said with what they have seen, the concrete roads would be a viable alternative in terms of quality and durability and against the background of the incessant failure of bituminous roads.
Ajayi said: “This will save the nation huge resources deployed to unending rehabilitation of roads. The solution to the longetivity of our roads lies in the adoption of concrete pavement.”
Ajayi said his delegation would recommend a concrete-paved road for the Wharf-Apapa Road, which has been a source of worry and economic waste for many years.
CEO of AG Dangote Construction Limited, Ashif Juma, told the delegation that his Company had constructed the 25-km-long Ibese-Itori Road as a Corporate Social Responsibility project and as a test of what his company can do and which can be replicated in other states as a solution to the incessant failure of bituminous roads.
Juma explained that the road was constructed in a record time of 150 days with all the materials tested and certified by the Lagos State Material Testing Laboratory. “Roads play a vital role in the nation’s infrastructure development and well-designed concrete roads require little maintenance over their 40-year design lives. Concrete roads will result in less fuel consumption and less emissions.”
Engineers at the last Nigeria Society of Engineering Conference held in Akure, Ondo State had also supported concrete road as a sure way of ensuring Nigerian roads would last a long time.
They had cited concrete roads in the United States of America and India, which have been constructed over 80 years ago and were still servicable.
