Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola inspected the ongoing Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano dual carriageway. After the inspection, he told reporters that all the road segments will be inaugurated for use before May 29, 2023 when President Muhammadu Buhari will hand over the baton of power to his successor, Senior Correspondent FANEN IHYONGO reports.
The weather was hazy the day Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola inspected the Kano-Zaria Road. The rising sun was obscured by fine suspended rock particles, driven by winds known by meteorologists as “the easterlies.” At a point you would not see beyond 50 metres without headlights, forcing air trips to be cancelled. As his convoy drove, hilly tops and inselbergs hazed in cloud and fog. The glasses of the vehicles were misted up with droplets like dews. Average temperature dropped, given rise to thorny cold like the cold in Jos, Plateau and Gembu, the headquarters of Sardauna council of Taraba State.
As the convoy moved, it got to a place where a truck loaded with goods that fell and blocked part of the road. The accident triggered a serious holdup. Fashola called a Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) marshal to send a crane to come and remove the accident vehicle. The engineers working on the road said they have to frequently interface with the states and federal road safety to clear obstructions on the carriage way before work could go on. The convoy and the minister saw a smooth beautiful road being built. But the challenges were also glaring, as many as the progress being made.
The Controller in charge of the Kaduna-Zaria section said a day does not pass without them witnessing an accident.
“There was an accident yesterday. About two accidents occurred in the morning, and now there is another one involving a truck. The driver to a police convoy has just broken his leg. A vehicle came and knocked him. We have taken him to the hospital,” he said.
Fashola chipped in: “This is the reality of delivering infrastructure in a build-up area. If you observe, you will notice that we have to relocate electricity poles, trucks parked by roadsides discharging cargoes and you will see farmers spreading their produce by the highway. These are the real-life challenges that we face.
“This truck fell; maybe it was over-speeding; maybe because of the road. I had to call the corps marshal of the Road Safety Corps as we were coming to send a removal truck to come and pick that truck at KM 342 this morning.
“Our target is to ensure the main carriage way is ready before May 29, 2023. But within this target, you can see some of the challenges we are facing and dealing with and it is important for people to understand that if you want to build a road, certain things have to be done properly,” the minister told reporters.
The entire road under rehabilitation and reconstruction from Abuja to Kano is 375.9 kilometres. A breakdown shows that the Abuja-Kaduna (Section I) is 165.5 kilometres long. Kaduna to Zaria (Section II) is 73.4 kilometres, while the Zaria to Kano (Section III) is 137.0 kilometres long. Julius Berger is the contractor.
To achieve this gargantuan target, at the moment, there are 1,600 people from 14 different nations, working on the road. There are 86 trucks and 87 trailers. A new asphalt plant was seen installed, with many bulldozers and other impressive equipment newly brought so as to finish the work in the second quarter of 2023.
“We are totally committed to finish this work on time,” one of the engineers said. “The most important thing is the progress of our work, that is why our workforce is divided into segments,” the minister assured.
Legislation key for infrastructure
In one of his interactions with newsmen, Fashola stated that in the last seven years, Nigeria has surpassed USA in legislating for infrastructural development.
“Still talking about the challenges of infrastructure, which are universal -because every country commits to infrastructure as a legitimate way to create wealth, grow economy and distribute wealth as we have seen here, in a democracy, you always need parliament to authorise what you spend on infrastructure.
“Now, President Muhammadu Buhari has been able to get his parliament to authorise his spending, and that is why we are even able to gather here, but the American government is struggling to get authorisation from its own parliament to start what we are already doing. There is no doubt, America is a much richer country when compared with Nigeria -their infrastructure is well ahead of us, but we have achieved more than them in getting legislation to spend for our infrastructural development,” he said.
1,600 persons employed
The minister spoke further on how the “real life challenges” faced in road construction are enormous but the Buhari administration is managing them.
Fashola said: “You can see some sections completed in that side of the road and some sections completed in this carriage of the road. Asphalt is being laid here and you can see the workers as well.
“So, this again is how infrastructure provides employment. There are 1,600 persons working here from 14 different parts of the world, most of them Nigerians and some of them providing other expatriates.
“You can see behind me the bitumen plant providing bitumen. These are supplies that the contractor does not make, so he is another supplier benefiting from that aspect. All the trucks ferrying laterite shows the ecosystem around infrastructure. About 643 equipment have been deployed. And the equipment do not work on their own, you need people to operate them -that is employment.
“So, work is in progress and let me appeal to our people to vacate the right of way so that the contractor can work more efficiently. There are safety issues about deployment of equipment, I don’t want anybody to lose his life during the construction.
“Also, for those using the road while it is being reconstructed, I will use this opportunity to appeal to them that the absolute maximum speed on the federal highway is 100km/hr. Try and stay within that speed limit so you can arrive at your destination safely.
“You have also seen overloaded trucks, we are planning to start rolling out wheel bridges but enforcement is not the solution, but voluntary compliance with maximum width level is what helps us in preserving the asphalt life values of roads.”
Reconstructing old road means constructing new road
It was gathered that to rehabilitate and reconstruct an old dilapidated road means that ideally, the entire road must be excavated. And then the workers would have to start milling and mining construction materials. And since that is not environmentally healthy, in terms of the current global awareness about conservation, those working on the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Road are reusing, through a special method, some of the materials on the old road. But they also need special machines to mill them, reprocess them and add certain other components to them.
“And those who are in engineering business will tell you that reused materials gain some strengths overtime and most likely to give even much stronger and reliable pavement when it’s finished.
“So, the pavement must be compacted and allowed to be ready for the next step and the asphalt to be laid must be laid at a specific temperature. That is why when they are laying asphalt they insert thermometers to ensure the temperature is right. So, we are not going to compromise all of that quality, otherwise the road will fail.
“And we have only 24hours in one day to work and we also want to avoid accidents. These are our targets -to finish the main carriage way before the end of the Buhari administration and we are doing our very best to achieve this,” the minister said.
Governors to help in relocating residents from right of way
The minister appealed that since work was in progress people should vacate the right of way so that the contractor can work more efficiently. Speaking on the challenge of “right of way,” Fashola urged governors, in whose domains the road has passed to assist in talking to residents occupying the right of way to relocate.
“We have the right of way issues and the state governors are the ones who control land; they are the best suited to help relocate their residents from our right of way.
“In some places, people have built on our right of way so the compensation issues have to be taken care of. I was with the Governor of Kano (Abdullahi Umar Ganduje) and one of the issues he addressed was that he was already on top of his own section and that very soon they will resolve their compensation issue.
“We are also in talks and collaboration with the Governor of Kaduna Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai as well as the Governor of Niger state Abubakar Sani Bello and the Minister of the FCT Mohammed Musa Bello, through whose territories these roads pass, so that the earlier we overcome all of these challenges, the easier our work,” the former Lagos governor said.
Fashola disclosed that President Buhari has been following up the work’s progress and challenges. He said his team meets with the president’s chief of staff every month to appraise him of the challenges.
“The president is providing all of the funding support and it is now a matter of man hours and work hours really and truly and we are prepared for the worst and we hope for the best.”