‘FG has enough funds to complete Lagos/Ibadan Exp’?

Mr. Mike Onolememen                         Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, on Monday said that the Federal Government had enough funds to complete the ongoing construction works on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.

The minister said the government had no plan to re-concession the project.

At a meeting with the two contractors working on the road, RCC and Julius Berger, during a visit to the project site, Onolememen said that the funding initiative already secured by the government would ensure steady flow of money to complete the work within the projected 48 months period.

He said, “I want to say that the Federal Ministry of Works is impressed with the work done so far by the two companies. I want to announce that the Federal Government, through the ministry and its transaction adviser on infrastructure, has secured project amount initiative for the actualisation of the project.

“This is apart from the commitment of the Federal Government, which amount to about N50bn. The Private Finance Initiative, which is a way of funding critical infrastructure projects, is very common in the US and it is a novel funding mechanism in Nigeria which is what we are implementing in the ministry.

“Government will not agree to any concession on this road. The government has taken a decision to ensure that it is constructed and well-maintained by taking it away from a failed concession and we are determined to deliver it. The government has secured the N25bn commitment for this year and next year’s fund will follow it. The Federal Government is taking advantage of the PFI initiative so it does not need to give the project to someone else.”

Onolememen said that the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway reconstruction project was the first to benefit from the PFI and that the materials being used by RCC and Julius Berger would guarantee a 50-year life span for the road despite the huge traffic on it.

He said, “This is the first road that will benefit from the PFI funding. What this means is that this road will be completed as scheduled. It will also be a model for our other projects. The improved material we are using to construct this road will give the road a 50-year life span despite the heavy traffic on it.

“We have found out that existing bitumen we were using on this road before was not good enough to sustain the traffic. We have also designed operation and maintenance strategy that will take off immediately after the construction of the road and it will run for a period of 25 years.”

Chief Engineer at RCC, Nader Yusuf, said it was the first time that polymer improved bitumen being used for the construction would be used in Nigeria.

“The material is 20 times stronger than the ordinary bitumen. The pavement structure is 65cm made up of several layers of stone-base and 19cm of asphalt base,” he said.

Major Operation Project Manager for Julius Berger, Mario Viduka, told the minister that there was no doubt that the road would be completed as scheduled.

He said, “The major challenge we had at first was the emergency repairs that would allow traffic to move freely. But we are making a headway because we have constructed additional lanes. We have 48 months to complete our work and we are certain that we will deliver as scheduled.

“We are using the improved bitumen like the one we tested in Germany at the beginning of this project. We are also using the polymer improved bitumen, which was tested on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway where the traffic is also huge and the result was positive.”