The Minister of Works Engr. David Nweze Umahi has directed that every road project must have a Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) registered engineer to be the project manager.
He said the person must not have less than 15 years of road construction, saying that the project should not have less than seven professionals supervising it for the Ministry of Works.
A statement issued on Tuesday by the Director (Information), the Federal Ministry of Works, Mrs Blessing Lere-Adams, said Umahi spoke when he toured the ongoing road construction works in Edo and Delta States respectively.
He was accompanied by the Deputy Governor of Delta State, Chief Monday John Onyeme, and the Commissioner for Roads and Bridges in Edo State Osazemen Ethan Uzamere.
During the joint inspection, Umahi also directed Levant Construction Company handling some of the Federal Government road projects linking Edo and Delta States in Benin to do the maintenance work of the construction of Benin – Sapele road at night and that work should start immediately, while the bad spots should be made motorable within 30 days.
Umahi said: “We have directed them to immediately maintain the road, we are redesigning the road irrespective of the fact that they have gotten advance payment, we are redesigning the road on concrete.
“We have agreed with the commissioner of Works and Bridges in Edo State that the drains should be opened so that the water can go out for the contractor to maintain the road, I am giving the contractor 7days to come up with the new design so that we all look at it together.
“On the side of the contractors, there are no good intentions, they don’t have enough personnel that are qualified, I have just directed that every project must have a Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) registered engineer to be the project manager for all contracts for every company on the road and the person must not have less than 15years on road construction and I have also directed that we shall no more do surface dressing on our road shoulders.
“I have directed that all projects must stop and be redesigned on concrete, the truth is that none of these roads that are built from Abuja to Benin will last more than 5years and that is very unfortunate, roads are failing because most of the contractors don’t do what is called penetration test, we also have adulterated bitumen, the bitumen imported into this country are adulterated, they should go to Ondo and Ogun State and develop our abundant bitumen there “
“We don’t want to put anybody out of business but we must develop our economy, they should employ our engineers; material engineers, geotechnical engineers, surveyors, structural engineers, and road engineers, every project should not have less than seven professionals supervising it for Ministry of Works, we are going to reset our road construction so that the people can smile again under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” the minister reiterated.
