The Federal Government, through the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), has concluded plans to fill up the potholes and intervene in the repair of failed portions of federal roads nationwide as the rainy season sets in.
This was disclosed by the acting Managing Director, FERMA, Mr Godson Amos, during an interview on Sunday, in Abuja.
Amos said the intervention became necessary due to the need to ameliorate the hardship and delays road users face daily on the highways.
He expressed optimism that the intervention would be achieved within six weeks of commencement on all potholes and road failure on federal roads across the country.
He said he has received reports on the deplorable condition of federal roads, which have caused a lot of inconveniences to road users, adding that this has hampered economic activities due to the to freely move persons and goods from one place to the another.
Amos said: “The failures on the roads are mostly caused by the incessant rainfall being experienced in many parts of the country, which result in cutting-off of roads embankment and collapsing of many carriageway sections at many locations across the country.
“Also, excessive traffic, overloading of vehicles coupled with the age of the roads are other factors that have contributed to the dilapidation of the federal roads.
“This hinders the free flow of traffic, causing colossal damages to vehicles, wastage of productive man hours and huge discomfort to road users.
“Our of engineers in the Field Offices have already carried out a route condition survey of the Federal Roads and have identified all critical failures like road embankments washout and failed carriageway section for the agency to take action.”
Also, excessive traffic, overloading of vehicles coupled with the age of the roads are other factors that have contributed to the dilapidation of the federal roads.
Speaking on how the agency would executive this intervention, Amos said direct labour would be deployed by engaging skilled and unskilled youths in the communities.
He added that appraisals have been made, including the assessment of work requirement, and estimation of resources like men, materials and machines that will be deployed to achieve the most cost-effective result.
To ensure that maximum results were achieved, he said the Agency has designed a good monitoring mechanism for effective and efficient monitoring of all the projects nationwide by deploying a management team for inspection.
He however identified funding as a major challenge in the maintenance of the 36,000 kilometres of federal highways all year round. (NAN)
