By Abba-Eku Onyekachi
The Minister of the Federal Ministry of Works, Engr. Dave Nweze Umahi, has urged the leadership of Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE) to consider the retraining of its members, enforcement of discipline and strict standards of ethics in engineering practice in Nigeria for the people’s interest and the protection of the economic investments.
He said that contrary to what obtains in Nigeria, in China there was no evidence of any road maintenance in nearly 30 years.
He said that “roads built in China within one’s lifetime, if the road fails, they will come for test and if there is any evidence of compromise, the person responsible would go to prison for life”.
He therefore offered partnership with the NSE in the area of supervision and consultancy of roads to extend their life shelf.
In a recent press statement made available to journalists in Abuja the minister gave the charge when the national leadership of the NSE, led by its president, Engr Tasiu Sa’ad Gidari Wudil paid him a courtesy call in Abuja.
Emphasizing the importance attached to quality delivery of construction works by the Renewed Hope Administration (RHA) of the President, as well as stressing that the ‘business as usual’ syndrome in road construction and maintenance is no longer tenable.
He reeled out the new policies on road infrastructure including good stabilized and tested subgrade; sub-base course before pavement placement; expose subgrade; sub-base and base course to 60 days vehicular movement and continuous sheep-foot rolling before pavement placement.
Others including introduction of reinforced concrete road pavement in most roads carriageway and shoulders; continuous maintenance of all roads under construction throughout the life of the project, under contract; effective design of road infrastructure anchored on detailed report of environmental site conditions and; geotechnical report and community relations in terms of keeping roads motorable under the period of the contract.
Stating that supervision was necessary in the actualization of quality delivery of road construction, whether concrete pavement or asphalt, the minister therefore noted that each of the two models has its own attendant conditions, just as he added that the stand of the Ministry was not about comparing asphalt and concrete pavement, but that, if you are using either of them, there are conditions attached to them.He said there are certain terrains on our roads that make it imperative for concrete pavement to be used.
Worried by the rate of increase in the cost of materials for construction of the two models, Nweze argued that the cost of materials for asphalt was in geometric progression, while the cost of materials for concrete pavement was in arithmetic progression.
 | ReplyReply allForward |
