The Commissioner for Works in Abia, Chief Bob Ogu, has said the state government will intensify the rehabilitation of failed portions of the roads and complete abandoned ones this dry season.
Ogu said this on Tuesday in an interview with newsmen in Aba, adding that the roads would be ready before the next rainy season.
He said that government had identified the roads in Aba, Umuahia and other parts of the state that must be rehabilitated to facilitate smooth transportation before March 2021.
He said that work had resumed at the Osisioma Interchange, while contractors would fully return to the Ayaba-Umeze-Udeagbala Road in Osisioma by Dec. 9.
The commissioner further said that the contractors handling Aba-Owerri Road had returned to site.
He also said that work had resumed on Ngwa and Ohanku Roads, which link Aba metropolis with Ogbor-Hill, Ugwunabo and Ukwa East Local Government Areas (LGAs).
He said that work would resume before Dec. 11 on Obohia Road after preliminary investigations had been completed to ensure quality construction.
Ogu said that the contractor handling the Ubakala Road in Umuahia would return to site to complete the Afor-Ibeji Market stretch to the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway on Dec. 11.
He said that the contractors handling the Umuenne-Obikabia Road, Mgboko-Okpu Umuobo Road that connects Obingwa LGA with Osisioma Ngwa LGA and the one on Umunneochi Road have all returned to site.
“The Umuokpara Ring road in Umuahia South is also ongoing. Contractors are back at Agalaba Ring Road in Obingwa LGA.
“The contractor handling Umuobiakwa-Owo Road in Obingwa is also back on site,” the commissioner said.
He said that government had three other roads to re-asphalt in Umuahia before the end of the dry season, adding that contractors were ready but had yet to return to site.
He said that government had made proposal to the contractor, who would handle the reconstruction of the Port Harcourt Road in Aba.
According to him, the contractor had yet to accept the proposal for the project, which is a federal government’s road.
Ogu said that the state government had concluded its own line of action on Ekeakpara Road (Old Aba-Owerri Road) since the Federal Ministry of Works halted its rehabilitation work there.
“By our own design, Ekeakpara Road, beginning from Osisioma Junction to Ekeakpara, was designed to be rigid pavement but that of the federal government is different.
“However, we have decided to do our rigid pavement and asphalt it from Osisioma Junction to terminate at the NNPC Depot, and allow federal government to continue from there to the end of the road,” he said. (NAN)
