President Goodluck Jonathan’s directive on ensuring that there are no potholes on critical federal highway corridors by Yuletide has been virtually accomplished, the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) said on Wednesday.
FERMA said that an ongoing nationwide assessment tour by a taskforce under the supervision of the Managing Director/CEO of the Agency, Engr. Gabriel Amuchi has shown that a number of the corridors, including the Kano–Kaduna–Abuja–Lokoja–Okene–Auchi routes are without potholes.
The Federal Roads Maintenance Engineer (FRME) in charge of Kogi State, Engr. Michael Kayode said he is confident the Yuletide target will be achieved within his domain despite the major challenge posed by reduced road width in the centre of Okene town and the heavy volume of traffic on the axis.
Two other contractors, Messrs Harvey Construction working from Auchi section and Borini Prono from Okene assured the task force that the target will be achieved.
The contractor also said that maintenance work on Okene–Auchi stretch of the road will be completed before the Yuletide,
While the agency and the Federal Ministry of Works are working closely on the Operation Zero Potholes and Safe Passage programmes, other critical routes where road maintenance operations under the presidential directive are also going on include Enugu–Aba–Port Harcourt dual carriageway, Owerri–Aba road, Shagamu–Ore–Benin dual carriageway, Benin Bye-pass, Benin–Agbor–Asaba, Onitsha–Owerri expressway, Onitsha–9th-Mile–Enugu road, Abuja–Nyanya–Keffi–Akwanga road, Akwanga–Lafia–Makurdi road, Makurdi–Aliade–Otukpo road and Otukpo–Obollo-Afor–9th-Mile road among others.
Conducting the team along ongoing road maintenance operations within his area of jurisdiction on the Abuja–Kaduna and Kaduna–Zaria–Kano stretch, Engr. Abdulkadir stated that his team has been working round the clock for over one month now and has virtually completed the task and is now on mop up operations.
He said their current operations are targeted at sealing up minor potholes and cracks that were not major threats at the inception of the operation.
“With all very dangerous potholes now eliminated, the current focus is to implement the Agency’s policy of continuous maintenance to achieve all-year-round serviceability of these critical roads henceforth,” he said.
“The acquisition of the FP5 Pothole Patcher as well as establishment of FERMA cold asphalt production plants in Kaduna and other production centres in the country have revolutionised road maintenance operations, giving engineers and technicians the confidence to work seven days a week. With these, past pains of waiting for days for materials and equipment and lack of hot rolled asphalt (HRA) are now over.”
He appealed to the management, through the monitoring taskforce, to consider acquiring bigger capacity asphalt blending plants and establishing cold asphalt production centres in all states of the federation to make road maintenance easier, cheaper and more effective.
Motorists interviewed by the monitoring team expressed their appreciation over the massive patching of potholes but also pleaded that the carriageway be strengthened in addition to recovering the bad shoulders.
The monitoring team mandated to go round the country to ensure full implementation of the Zero Pothole programme will remain on the selected roads till the end of January 2013 to sustain the programme, send feedback to the MD/CEO and as well advise field operation staff where necessary to ensure the goal of zero-pothole is attained.
