Federal Govt Sets To Construct 2 SuperHighways From Abuja, Port Harcourt To Lagos

By Adetokunbo FAKEYE with agency report

The Government of Nigeria is set to construct two super highways across the country through a Public Private Partnership scheme.

The Minister of Work, Dave Umahi, who disclosed this to the State House Correspondents on Sunday after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu in Abuja, according to NAN report, said the highways would be from Abuja to Lagos and Port Harcourt to Lagos, adding they would be equipped with state of art facilities for the comfort of travelers.

"Super highways are designed for travel at high speeds, having more than one lane for each direction of traffic, a safety strip dividing the two directions", he said.

The minister said that the government has got commitments from stakeholders to make the project a success within 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.

According to him, the National Assembly would be carried along to see the necessity of providing enough fund to road project that are beneficial to the people.

He added that due to inappropriate funding, he has requested that the president direct the termination of road projects that have taken more than 10 years without completion.

The minister assured Nigerians that no project initiated by the past administration would be abandoned by government.

He said that the Tinubu administration inherited 2,604 projects worth ₦14 trillion covering 18,000 kilometres of roads, adding that a commitment was got for payment of four trillion out of this amount.

The minister added that the government was also committed to the use of reinforced concrete for road pavements across the country.

Concrete, he claims, is capable of withstanding heavy loads, such as heavy vehicles, with less deformation and serves for years without major repairs.

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

He said that the merit of these would be the use of local materials and elimination of imported bitumen which has been the cause of contract variations in the country.

On the structural defects on the Third Mainland bridge, the Minister said that work has started and articulated vehicles have been stopped from using it for now.