The Nation Newspaper

Tag: toll gates

  • Return of toll gates

    By Our Reporter

    •They should be better managed to avoid the pitfalls of the past

    Did much of the requisite critical thinking go into the decision by the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration to abolish toll gates on federal highways in the country in 2003? With the benefit of hindsight, it is difficult to answer this question in the affirmative.  Over a decade and a half after Nigerians woke up to find all toll gates across the nation destroyed at humongous public cost, the Federal Government has decided to return the toll gates on  federal highways.

    Announcing this decision after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on October 2, the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), said: “There is no reason why we can’t toll, there was a policy of government to abolish tolls or, as it were, dismantle toll plazas but there is no law that prohibits tolling in Nigeria today. We expect to return toll plazas; we have concluded the design of what they will look like, what materials they will be built with, what new considerations must go into them. What we are looking at now is how the bank end runs”.

    In demolishing the toll gates, the Obasanjo administration had assumed that revenues from the increase in petroleum products prices at the time would be utilised to maintain the roads. It appears to have miscalculated badly on this score. None of the benefits expected to accrue from the incessant increase in petroleum products’ price hikes over the years has ever come to fruition, and this was no exception.

    Among other reasons given for the demolition of the toll gates were the massive corruption associated with the collection of the tolls, with much of the revenue ending up in private pockets, and the perception that the toll gates compounded the pain of motorists by inhibiting free flow of traffic on the highways. There is no reason why these problems could not have been creatively solved without the resort to drastically abolishing tolls.

    Given the marked deterioration of the national economy and the severe shortage of revenue to fund critical infrastructure, including construction and maintenance of federal highways, the reintroduction of toll plazas seems to be an inevitable policy choice for the government. It is commendable that the government plans, this time around, to tackle the corruption that characterised toll collection through the introduction of electronic mode of payment to replace cash transactions.

    We believe that most road users will not be unwilling to pay the road tolls if the roads are efficient, safe and secure. Mr. Fashola should, therefore, not ignore the argument of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), for instance, that “The roads are in very bad shape across the country; how can you toll a bad road? If you have fixed the roads and you now talk of tolling to recoup the money spent and to generate money to maintain the roads, people will consider it”.

    There can certainly be no plausible reason to oppose tolling of federal highways that are in motorable condition, well-lit and provided with adequate security. But to toll roads that are death traps to users and devoid of the requisite security would surely mean exposing travellers to double jeopardy. It is our view that there should be specific legislation on how the funds accruing from tolls on various roads should be tracked, accounted for and utilised.

    A situation whereby tolls from users of various highways end up in the labyrinthine belly of the Federation Account only to be disbursed for omnibus purposes that have nothing to do with the roads from where they were derived should be avoided.

  • Lagos-Ibadan road to get toll gates

    Section 1 of the reviewed N134.8 billion Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will include two toll gates, underpasses and flyovers, the Federal Controller in the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Adedamola Kuti, has said.

    Kuti spoke yesterday in Lagos at the project site during an inspection by the Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing II, Hassan Zarma.

    He listed the reviewed infrastructure as: four underpasses, two flyovers, an interchange to the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) and toll gate plazas.

    The controller said the original contract will be completed this year.

    The project started in 2013 with an extended completion date of July.

    According to him, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) recently approved augmentation of the contract to N134.8 billion, from N70.7 billion.

    Kuti said: “The augmentation came up as a result of the additional works included in the project. When the original contract was conceived, so many other considerations were not included in the project.

    “So, with the augmentation, government also extended the completion date to 48 months.”

    The project, which started in Lagos through Sagamu interchange, has been significantly completed.

    Kuti said: “The 11.6 kilometres on both bounds have been substantially completed. We have also completed another six kilometres on both lanes, aside from a four-kilometre bridge.

    “People used to sleep on this road in recent years, but it’s no longer the case. The contractor has just moved to site.”

  • N134.8b Lagos-Ibadan Expressway project to attract toll gates

    Section I of the newly reviewed N134.8b Lagos – Ibadan expressway will include construction of two toll gates, underpasses and flyovers, Federal Controller, Ministry of Power Works and Housing, Engr. Adedamola Kuti has said.

    He disclosed this at the project site during an inspection by the Minister of State for Power Works and Housing II, Surv Hassan Zarma, Thursday in Lagos.

    Kuti listed the reviewed infrastructures to include four under passes, two flyovers, interchange to the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) and the toll gate plazas.

    He explained that the original contract will be completed this year.

    The project commenced in 2013 with an extended completion date set to July, 2018.

    According to him, the FEC recently approved the augmentation of the contract to N134.8b from N70.7b.

    Read Also:Will Lagos-Ibadan Expressway ever be delivered?

    “The augmentation came up as a result of additional works included to the project. When the original contract was conceived, so many other considerations were not included in the project.

    “So, with the augmentation government also extended the completion date to 48 months,” he said.

    The project which commenced in Lagos through Shagamu interchange has been significantly completed.

    “11.6km on both bound has been substantially completed. We have also completed another six kilometres on both lanes aside from a four kilometres bridge.

    “People used to sleep on this road in recent years but it’s no longer the case now. The contractor has just moved to site,” he added.

    In his remarks, the Minister assured the project completion stressing that the N105 billion Sukuk bond has guaranteed its attainment.

    He expressed excitement over the project saying it ought to be completed by December but for the additional infrastructure.

    “The road project has so far reduced travel time, save automobile life span and reduces road carnage.”

    Julius Berger, Division Manager, Lagos – Ibadan Expressway project, Wolfgang Loesser said Section 1 of the ongoing project has attained 56 per cent completion and to be delivered in 48 months.

  • Don’t waste tax payer’s money on toll gates, Oba tells FG

    Former Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology in the 3rd Republic and now a traditional ruler in Lagos State, HRM Oba (Dr.) Oladele Friday Kosoko (JP), Ogundeyi 11, Oniworo of Iworo Kingdom, at the weekend opposed the plan by the federal government to build new toll gates in 36 strategic locations in the country.

    He called on the National Assembly to stop the planned reintroduction of toll gates by considering a bill on the alternative to toll plaza.

    He told The Nation that the recent call by the Hon. Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), for the federal government to reintroduce toll gates on Nigerian highways is a waste of public funds.

    He made the statement in Lagos while reacting to recent reports which indicated that the federal government has concluded plan to meet stakeholders on the proposed new toll gates but the royal father said toll gates were initially constructed with billions of naira and later dismantled with billions of naira, which is wasteful.

    Dismissing FG’s new plan to reintroduce toll gates as an ‘unfavourable policy’, Oba Kosoko said if the aim of the government is to generate funds for maintenance of roads, there is a better alternative to toll plaza from which the government can generate N400billion annually. According to him, “this should be sufficient to maintain our roads.”

    Oba Kosoko also said “it is worrisome that Hon. Minister of Works, Power and Housing could mislead the federal government on the way to generate fund for the maintenance of federal roads,” warning that “if the toll plaza is allowed to function, it would create avenues for hoodlums and bottleneck for road users.”

     

  • Fed Govt finalising plans on toll gates’ return, says minister

    The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has  said the Federal Government will standardise the operation and management of toll gates before reintroduction.

    He spoke yesterday in Abuja when he appeared on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) flagship programme, NAN Forum.

    Fashola said the standardisation was to overcome some of the problems encountered in the past in the operation and management of the plazas.

    He said: “We are also working to overcome some of the problems of the past, accountability and transparency in the operations and management.

    “We think technology gives us an opportunity to overcome these problems.

    “So we want to standardise all of that, then we have sent our officers out because we have revolved the design actually, what we want the toll plazas to look like.

    “In terms of design, quality of materials, cost, because we want to issue bids for people to come and bid for them.

    “So that when we are evaluating the bids, there can be proper evaluation because we are standardised.”

    The minister said the Federal Government had recorded progress in road construction and rehabilitation, considering the poor state of the roads at the inception of the current administration.

    “We have momentum in terms of team work, project delivery and problem solving and I think we should be seeing more cascading of results in more places.

    “In areas where our contractors are back to site, what we hear is that the journey is getting better; their travel time has been reduced and we will continue to reduce that.

    “Those that used to go through bush paths now see that they can drive through the roads even though it is not finished.

    “Contractors on the road sites who were laid off are back to work. So, that is a good news for them and their families to earn income,” he said.

    Fashola said the Federal Government was also making efforts to recover and protect its rights of way on highways to address the challenges of abuses on federal roads.

    According to him, the government on each highway has a right of way of 45.75 metres from the centre line on either sides of the road.

    He said the right of way of the government had over the years been encroached on by unapproved structures, trading, illegal parking of vehicles and vehicular repairs.

    Fashola said the Federal Government would not renew temporary occupant of its right of way.

     

     

  • Toll gates

    •FG’s plan to return them is good, but …

    Toll gates will soon be back on federal highways in the county; about 14 years after the Federal Government abolished them. President Olusegun Obasanjo had ordered the demolition of the toll gates and banned collection of tolls on them with effect from January 1, 2004. He said they had outlived their usefulness.

    Speaking on a Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) forum tagged: ‘The President explains’, Obasanjo said the N63 million which the tollgates generated daily was nothing to write home about and that the gates constituted inconvenience to motorists and encouraged corruption. He added that the tollgates had been known to record serious accidents while portions of roads near many of them were full of potholes.

    Many Nigerians welcomed the idea then even as many others felt the reasons given by the government were not tenable and that it should have addressed the observed lapses in the arrangement and fine-tuned them for efficiency.

    Years after, it had become obvious that proceeds from the petroleum tax of N1.50k per litre which, effective January 2004, was proposed to be used to improve federal roads cannot sufficiently address the problem of road infrastructure. Many federal roads became impassable, thus constituting death traps. A good example is the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which the Federal Government has been trying to expand in the last few years.

    The competing demands for scarce resources led the Senate in 2016 to resolve that tollgates should be returned to federal highways. A member of the Senate representing Bauchi-North Senatorial District, Suleiman Nazif, therefore moved the motion titled, ‘Need for the re-establishment of tolls on our federal highways,’ He said: “The Senate notes that the re-establishment of tollgates is a solution to saving the nation’s generally dilapidated road networks; observes that besides revenue generation, the presence of tollgates, which are normally managed by armed security agents, provides a level of safety for road users; notes that government alone cannot fund road construction.”

    This, no doubt, is the way to go. Indeed, it is what obtains in many other countries. This is why we welcome the government’s resolve to bring back tollgates on federal roads. We also applaud its decision to adopt motorist-friendly platforms, such as phones, smart cards and electronic cards on windscreen for toll payments. Mr. Chukwunwike Uzo, director of highways, planning and development, Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the idea was to make toll payment easy and reduce cash payment at tollgates.

    It is gratifying, too, that the tollgates would run as businesses to create employment for Nigerians. Said he:”We are evaluating, studying and trying to map out all the facilities we need to put in those areas where we had toll plazas in the past. We are not looking at it only as toll plazas, but as a business venture, so that we can create employment for Nigerians. We want to set up facilities like mechanic workshops, restaurants, rest rooms and little motels to create employment for people living around the tollgates.”

    In essence, the tollgates would be radically different from what we had in the past – which were just avenues for collecting money from motorists. This is what, expectedly, the new arrangement seems set to achieve. We hasten to caution, however, that in Nigeria, the problem is not in government being bereft of ideas but in implementing them. On paper, the proposal looks good; we can only hope things would not be muddled up at the level of implementation.

    If well implemented, road travels will be the delightful experience that they should be: not only will our roads stop being death traps; many Nigerians would also be able to find jobs in some of the ancillary facilities that would be provided on the highways.

  • Return of toll gates

    Return of toll gates

    SIR: I commend the proposed plan by the federal government to reintroduce tollgates on Nigeria’s highways. It is quite unfortunate that the plan to reintroduce tollgates recently announced by the Honourable Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola rather than attract kudos has received knocks from critical segments of the Nigerian society. Many who should know better have rather chosen to deliberately misinform the public by presenting it as a plan by the government to further increase the hardship of Nigerians in a time of economic recession.

    Tolling was initially introduced on Nigerian roads in the 70’s in the thick of the oil-boom era. The whole purpose behind it then was that while the money realized from the sale of crude oil internationally would be used to build critical infrastructure like roads, bridges and highways, the money generated from tolling would be used to maintain them. It was not an idea native to Nigeria as it was already in existence in advanced countries of the world like the United Kingdom where we borrowed the idea from and the United States of America. The whole idea behind the collection of tolls was for road maintenance. However, like all things in Nigeria that got infected by the corruption bug, the money realized from tollgates nationwide began to be diverted into private pockets and that was what prompted former President Olusegun Obasanjo to abolish tolling on our roads and highways in 2003.

    But despite the corruption involved in revenues derived from the tollgates, it still generated enough funds which were used to still make our roads passable and prevent them from decaying beyond repair. A thorough study of Nigerian roads would reveal that since the abolition of tollgates on our highways, majority of Nigerian roads have metamorphosed into death traps overnight with several avoidable accidents occurring leading to the loss of precious and valuable lives. The huge craters which developed on our roads now became convenient points for dare-devil armed robbers to stage attacks on innocent travellers. It also led to illegal tolling as many motorists in order to avoid bad roads now pass through roads in villages and communities where idle youths now set up their own “Tollgates” and collect toll from them.

    The way to minimize corruption in the management of tolling revenues is to make it automated. That way, all monies generated would go directly into the coffers of the government. The money realized from tolling should be used strictly for the maintenance of roads and highways in Nigeria and not for any other purpose. That will lead to less accidents on our highways, less armed robbery attacks, less time spent on the road travelling from one place to another and the elimination of illegal tolling on our roads. Alternative routes should be created for motorists who cannot afford to pay toll. The success of some reputable companies in Nigeria in reintroducing tollgates on some selected roads in Lagos shows that indeed tolling can be successfully carried out in Nigeria. Government should bring in these private companies as consultants in order to pick their brains and get ideas which will ensure the success of this programme all over Nigeria. Our lack of maintenance culture in Nigeria is what has made key infrastructure facilities which we celebrated at their commissioning as world class projects to decay beyond repair and rehabilitation. We must as a people embrace the maintenance culture by embracing the reintroduction of toll gates on our roads and highways.

     

    • Peter Ovie Akus,

     Ifo, Ogun State.

  • Fed Govt to reintroduce toll gates in 38 points, says Fashola

    Fed Govt to reintroduce toll gates in 38 points, says Fashola

    Arrangements have been concluded to reintroduce toll gates in 38 points across the country, Power, Works & Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola said yesterday.

    The minister said that the reintroduction of the toll gates by the Federal Government will be consummated after completion of major highways.

    The toll gates are to be managed by the private sector,  Fashola told members of the Senate Committee on Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) when he appeared before them in Abuja yesterday.

    He told the lawmakers of plans by the government to design software for the monitoring of vehicles passing through the roads.

    According to him, road users would be able to pay toll through their phones, explaining that the toll collected would be used for maintenance of the highways.

    He said, “We have concluded plans to reintroduce toll gates across the country and we have finalised the design.

    “It will be managed by private sector and it will be located in the old places, 38 point across the country “We are only waiting for the completion of those roads before we introduce the toll gates.

    He appealed to the Committee to revise procurement law in order to fast track contract approval by the government.

    On budget release to FERMA, Fashola noted that out of N25 billion budget for the agency in the 2017 Budget, only N800 million has so far been released to the agency by the Ministry of Finance.

    He admitted that the worst roads are located in the Southsouth and Southeast geopolitical zones, adding that an audit of bad roads showed that some of the roads were built before the 1967-1970 civil war.

    The minister, who assured that efforts are on top gear to fix the roads, also said that the N100 billion sourced through the Sukuk Bond, was yet to be released to his ministry to carry out 25 major road constructions in the six geopolitical zones of the country.

    He said that FERMA could be more effective and efficient if overhauled and compel to limit its operations to the core mandate of maintaining federal roads.

    Fashola said: “FERMA can be the largest construction company in the country. It depends on what we are willing to put into the agency. In the past, FERMA collected monies for roads they did not construct. That has to stop in this government.

    “We are working with the Army Corps to see how we can develop local content. FERMA can be biggest construction firm. The unemployment challenges we have can be reduced if FERMA is busy is every state.”

    In his remarks, FERMA Committee Chairman Senator Magnus Abe noted that lawmakers, who are the true representatives of the people, are often sidelined by heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) when mulling siting of projects.

    Abe said: “As elected representatives of the people, if the Federal Government is doing anything in your areas, our inputs are hardly needed. We will then have to fight for relevance.

    “We are meeting you because of the challenges FERMA which is under your supervision is facing. Is this agency relevant in your scheme of things in your ministry? We need you to touch on the core challenges of this agency.”

  • Planned return of toll gates pits experts against Fed Govt

    Planned return of toll gates pits experts against Fed Govt

    The proposed return to the tolling of Trunk A roads by the Federal Government has again raised a question on whether road maintenance is a government task or citizens tax. Experts say the proposal, though good, may not be the best option in achieving regular maintenance of federal highways, ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE reports

     

    THE narrative of the nation’s road network is intriguing. The more successive governments pumped money into road repairs, the more the roads remained deplorable – intractable and deadly.

    A princely sum N1.8 trillion is believed to have been spent on roads by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Defending the huge investment, the then Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said the nation actually needed $5 billion yearly to upgrade all the 34,123-kilometre road belonging to the Federal Government.

    Breaking down the government’s expenditure before he vacated office as former Works Minister, Mike Onolememen, claimed the Jonathan government spent N320 billion on Northeast roads; N300 billion on the Northcentral; N200 billion on Northwest; N345 billion on  Southeast; N350 billion Southwest and N250 billion on Southsouth.

    Out of the 133 road projects awarded by the immediate past administration, only 62 were completed and delivered on schedule, the former minister claimed. But, stakeholders in the transportation sector insist that more than half of the 62 roads remain in bad shape.

     A detailed investigation on the state of federal roads across the six geo-political zones by The Nation newspaper showed that the less than 30 per cent of the road network across the country is passable. The worse hit region is the Southeast where no road was rehabilitated in the zone despite federal government’s claim that it committed a whopping N345 billion in the region.

    In the past 16 years, experts claim that more than N4 trillion had been sunk into road projects by the Federal Government. Besides, successive administrations had been busy on the roads.

    For instance, between 1996 and 1998 for instance, the Federal Government, through the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), spent about N500 billion to build and refurbish highways. In 2000, erstwhile Works Minister Chief Anthony Anenih sunk another N350 billion under an intervention programme tagged: “Operation 500 roads.” The programmed was designed for the upgrade of 500 ‘critical’ federal roads across the country.

    Two years after, the Federal Government came up with another intervention, which brought about the creation of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA). FERMA was established to carry out an all-year-round maintenance on federal roads

    But, despite the frequency of such interventions, spanning over 20 years, more than 80 per cent of roads remain in deplorable conditions.

    Going by the claim of FERMA’s Managing Director, Mr. Kabiru Abdullahi, the agency spent about N26.5 billion on maintenance of roads in the last two years. He said the agency would need a yearly vote of N120 billion to effectively maintain federal roads across the country.

    Records have shown that federal government’s roads alone had gulped over 70 of the nation’s total capital expenditures in the past two decades. Yet, only 34,123 of the 193, 200 kilometres of road networks nationwide belong to the federal. The states and local government areas account for 30,500 kilometres and 129,577 kilometres respectively.

    The high costs of providing durable road network have placed the burden on government as sole financier of road infrastructure. Since 1962, budgetary allocations to road infrastructure have been on the rise. The road sector got 19 per cent; 23 per cent; 22 per cent; and 15 per cent of total public capital outlays respectively for the periods 1962– 1968; 1970–1974; 1975-1980 and 1981–1985 (corresponding to the various National Development Plans).

    Interestingly, the road transport also continued to receive over half of the total public sector capital outlay, with road infrastructure receiving 58 per cent; 67 per cent; 71 per cent and 60 per cent of the transport sector’s share. The remaining modes of transportation shared a combined 42 per cent; 33 per cent; 29 per cent and 40 per cent in the first, second, third and fourth development plans respectively.

    Across the globe, particularly in developing countries, the contribution of the transport sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ranges from three to five per cent.

    Between 1960 and 2009, the transport sector contributed between 1.9 and 5.5 per cent of GDP in the country. Of this percentage, road transport alone accounted for over 60 per cent in the 1960s; over 80 per cent in the 1980s and over 90 per cent in the 1990s and 2000s.

    Poor road network,

    huge traffic volume

     

    Since independence, the road sector has not only accounted for an overwhelming percentage of passenger and freight movements, but also for over 95 per cent of the conveyance of non-oil goods to and from the seaports.

    As at 2007, only 35 per cent of the federal highways were rated as being in a good or very good condition. The last assessment of Federal Draft Green Paper for Consultation II Roads carried out by FERMA (March 2011) revealed that only 26.5 per cent of federal roads passed the integrity test.

    But, despite the deplorable condition of the roads, the traffic volumes have consistently been on the rise.

    According to a traffic data on federal roads, about five per cent of the roads carry over 10,000 vehicles per day (vpd); 19 per cent carry between 6,000 –10,000 vpd, while 26 per cent and 51 per cent of the road carry between 4,500 – 6,000 vpd and less than 4,500 vpd.

    The increasing volume of vehicle has been traced to the opening up of the country for economic growth and development. As more roads were opened, vehicles were acquired to ply them.

    The total number of registered vehicles which stood at 2,781 in 1937 rose to 16,187 in 1956; 26,735 in 1963; 75,215 in 1974; 150,226 in 1983 and 1,081,933 in 1997.

    By 2000, the number of vehicles had risen to 1.3 million. It rose to 2.8 million in 2005; 7.4 million in 2006 and 7.6 million in 2007 (No data has been released since 2007).

    The phenomenal growth in vehicular density informed the idea of looking outside the government for funding to fill the road rehabilitation gap.

    When it scrapped the tolling system 16 years ago, the Federal Government introduced a five per cent user tax on petroleum products to sustain road maintenance activities across the country.

    The need to generate more funds to meet the rising cost led to the introduction of fresh initiatives such as the setting up of Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) in 2012, and the setting up of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory and Advisory Commission (ICRAC), to streamline the guidelines for the Public Private Partnership (PPP) intervention on federal roads, classified as Trunk A roads and for which the federal government has exclusive responsibility to fund.

    Re-introducing

    toll gates

     

    The Federal Government has left no one in doubt that it needs fresh funds to make all road network, especially the federal roads connecting cities and states, sparkle in the country, passable all-year-round.

    That explains why, in his maiden address as the Minister of Power Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, broached the touchy issue of tolling of Trunk A roads.

    He said: “Maintenance (of the roads), would be our watchword. We are setting up a robust maintenance regime to keep our highways in good shape. This shows that tolling is necessary to support government funding.

    “So, it will not be too much if we ask every road user to pay little to augment government funding for road maintenance. It is eminent commonsense for us to find that money. We’ll use technology so that if you don’t pay cash, you will pay by tokens or tickets.”

    The minister also addressed the issue of corruption which many stakeholders see as the bane of good roads.

    He said: “The money is going to be accounted for and it will go to the right place. We will manage that fund properly and we will hold those who we put there to account.”

    Two years ago, the Federal Government toyed with the idea of re-introducing the tolling regime. In a draft green paper on federal roads and bridges tolling policy released in October 2013 by the Federal Ministry of Works, the government said tolling would remove the chaotic budgetary distortions on road infrastructure, a situation that had led to serial abandonment of road projects by contractors due to financing challenges.

    According to the report, the utilisation rate of the budget for the ministry of works in 2009, was only three per cent, while the average annual expenditure on road maintenance at FERMA, between 2008 and 2010 was ($329 million), representing just 50 per cent of the required amount.

    The above presents the chaotic nature of funding road infrastructure, which is wholly dependent on public funds, a situation that has left the road sector in a precarious situation.

    Road expenditures are often below the levels required to extend the network and keep the existing facilities in a stable long-term condition. Funds are often released belatedly.

    The results of the funding anomaly, according to the report, have been road degeneration and an increasing backlog of road rehabilitation and slow network expansion. Local and international experience has however shown that tolls cannot be introduced on all roads.

    Acceptable standard

    One criterion that determines tolling is the Average Daily Traffic (ADT) carried by a particular road. For a road to be financially viable for tolling, the acceptable Daily Traffic Requirement (DTR) may range from 1,500 to 15,000 vehicles per day, depending on the cost to be recovered (based on an average toll of $6 per every 100 kilometre.

    Due to high construction costs, the required ADT may even be higher on individual projects. Elsewhere, different policies have been applied as regards to tolling any particular road.

    In Canada, only significant investments that expand or extend the existing road network may be tolled. Such includes the expansion of a dual lane highway to four or a road that covers a substantial distance. By this criterion, minor improvements, such as the introduction of passing lanes or realignments would not be tolled.

    China, which has legislated criteria for selecting toll roads provides that freeways may only be tolled if their consecutive mileage exceeds 30 kilometres, except for freeways between airports and urban districts.

    Arterial roads may only be tolled if their consecutive mileage exceeds 50 killometre, while bridges and tunnels may be tolled only if they are of two-lane standard and exceed 800 metre or are of a four lane standard, exceeding 500 metre.

  • Senate seeks re-introduction of tollgates

    The Senate on Thursday asked the Federal Government to re-introduce tollgates on federal highways.

    The upper chamber also advised the government to introduce weigh bridges to protect roads and to discourage over tasking highways that were not constructed for ferrying heavy vehicles and trucks.

    This was part of the resolution of the Senate as adopted from the report of its ad-hoc committee on works on total collapse of federal roads and prevalent of gully erosion in the country.

    The Chairman of the ad-hoc committee, Senator Barnabas Gemade presented the report.

    The Senate at its sitting on July 28, deliberated on two motions entitled: “State of disrepair and total collapse of the Ikot Ekpene-Itu-Calabar federal highway,” sponsored by Senator Albert Bassey Akpan and “Landslide in parts of Isuikwuato and Arochukwu local government areas in Abia North Senatorial District, Abia State,” sponsored by Senator Mao Ohuabunwa which led to setting up of the ad-hoc committee.

    The Senate resolved that revenue collected from the tollgates should be channeled to road maintenance.

    The lawmakers said new methods of funding road projects should be adopted including concession to construction companies with solid capital base and excellent track record.