The Federal Executive Council approved the construction of 14 roads and bridges badly affected by floods in Ekiti State, Adamawa, Kebbi and Enugu.

Works minister David Umahi said this while addressing journalists after the FEC meeting.

He said the others are in Cross River, Ondo, Osun State, Ebonyi, Abia and Imo.

He said the roads were awarded, in addition to a contract for the repair and rehabilitation of Gamboru Bridge along Gambor-Ngala-Kala-Balge Road in Borno.

The minister said FEC also approved a new contract for the rehabilitation of Maraban-Kankara-Funtua Road in Katsina and the construction of 258km three-lane carriageway, a component of the 1,000 Sokoto-Badagry super-highway, Section 2, Phase 2A.

Likewise, he said FEC approved the contract for the construction and dualisation of Afikpo-Uturu-Okigwe Road in Ebonyi, Abia and Imo (Section 2).

He said FEC similarly approved the contract for Bodo-Bonny Road in Rivers, to be executed by Julius Berger.

“FEC approved an additional N80 billion to complete that project, bringing the total cost to N280 billion. The next is the Third Mainland Bridge, which was executed under emergency work,” he said.

He said the Third Mainland Bridge was a nightmare when the present government assumed office.

He explained that Julius Berger sought to review the entire project when he came on board.

“Don’t forget that the initial cost of the projects was N155 billion, and the past administration reviewed it to N797 billion. Berger insisted that the reviewed contract sum should be N1.5 trillion. We didn’t have that money, and the coordinating minister for the economy and myself went through the road and had a strategic meeting with Berger,” said Mr Umahi.

Mr Umahi said he eventually sought the approval of President Bola Tinubu to break the projects into three so that two sections could be done on tax credit and Julius Berger could do one.

The minister said that the FEC approved Julius Berger’s contract for a total contract sum of N740 billion. However, he said the other two were not presented for approval.

“If you remove approximately N400 billion paid by the last administration, then what is left is about N340 billion. That is what the contract sum for the 164km will be, and that’s what FEC approved today,” Mr Umahi said.

He added that the Lekki Deep Seaport road service lane was approved for construction by FEC.

Mr Umahi said over 3,000 fuel trucks queuing to the lift fuel at Dangote Refinery were all parked on the newly constructed Lekki-Calabar coastal highway.

“Technically and by design, the roads were never built for static loads, and so it has a lot of effects,” he said.

He said that the FEC approved the concession of the federal government land in the area so that concessioners could build a park.

“It’s a park that will be tolled so that all the trucks can safely park over there, and the pavement of such a park is quite different from the pavement of the road,” said Mr Umahi. 

(NAN)