The federal government says it is planning two super highways across the country through a public-private partnership scheme.

Works minister David Umahi disclosed this to State House correspondents on Sunday after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu in Abuja.

He said the highways would be from Abuja to Lagos and Port Harcourt to Lagos, with state-of-the-art facilities.

The super highways are designed for travel at high speeds, having more than one lane for each direction of traffic and a safety strip dividing the two directions.

The minister said the government received commitments from stakeholders to make the project successful within a reasonable period.

Mr Umahi also disclosed that the president was briefed on the need to seek better appropriation for the funding of road projects to avoid unnecessary variations in cost and specifications.

The minister said the National Assembly would be carried along to see the necessity of providing enough funds for road projects that benefit the people.

Mr Umahi also said due to inadequate funding, he asked the president to direct the termination of road projects that took more than 10 years without completion.

The minister assured Nigerians that the government would abandon no project initiated by the past administration. He said the Tinubu administration inherited 2,604 projects worth N14 trillion covering 18,000km of roads.

The minister added that the government was also committed to using reinforced concrete for road pavements across the country. Mr Umahi said concrete could withstand heavy loads, such as heavy vehicles, with less deformation and serve for years without major repairs.

Several factors affect concrete pavement performance, such as traffic, soil, environmental, economic and stress distribution factors.

Mr Umahi also mentioned that the merit of these would be the use of local materials and the elimination of imported items, which have been the cause of contract variations in the country.

On the structural defects on the Third Mainland bridge, Mr Umahi said work had started, and articulated vehicles had been stopped from plying it for now.

(NAN)