FERMA Partners US Firm, Seeks to Cut Cost of Roads Maintenance

* Company to establish production plant in Nigeria

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has said with the collaboration between the organisation and a United States firm, Base Seal international, the huge cost of roads repairs could be reduced markedly.

Speaking when the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Danny Bowers, visited him in his Abuja office, the Managing Director of FERMA, Nurudeen Rafindadi, noted that the new introduction also delivers superior performance when compared with stone-based or laterite materials. He wondered why Nigeria had not deployed the use of the road maintenance material before now despite scoring a pass mark with the National Council on Works and the payment evaluation unit of the ministry.

 “What intrigued me was why we were not quick in trying to start to use it. What strikes me is the kind of longevity, the fact that it has the ability to replace the use of stone base or laterite in road,” he noted.
Describing base seal as revolutionary, he explained that it was far simpler to use than other alternatives and also has the advantage of saving cost.
“This revolutionises cost saving measures in road construction,” he noted.

Underscoring the need to explore cheaper and more effective road maintenance additives, Rafindadi noted that the agency’s allocation remained at best about 10 per cent of the entire budget of the road sector.

“I think this a big advantage for small budget players like us and therefore I would say it again to members of staff of FERMA that this is something that will impact the ability of the agency to maintain road sustainably.
“We have 36,000 of federal roads alone and we have in total about 200,000km of all roads. FERMA has progressed steadily in the last few years to intervening and repairing about 5,000km annually,” he added.

Expressing delight at the visit of Bowers and the firm’s representative in Africa, Mr. Ike Onyiuke, the FERMA managing director said the collaboration was helping to reduce the cost of transporting lateral or stone-base to construction sites.
He explained that although the agency cannot solely determine the establishment of a base seal production plant in the country, but as a significant player in the sector, it is committed to using the product.

Bowers, in his remarks, stated that he was happy to see the use of the product in road construction in the country and thanked FERMA for adopting it.
“Base seal has observed the successful adaptation of BS-100 chemical as an alternative to stone-base for projects executed by FERMA. We are encouraged and pleased to partner with the agency.

“Base seal will be supplied to Nigeria at an affordable and economical cost and we will also foster the establishment of production in Nigeria,” he stressed.
Earlier, a documentary of the progress report on the usage of Base Seal (BS-100) in soil stabilisation during road rehabilitation and construction was viewed by all those that were present at the event.
The firm said the liquid chemical was developed to penetrate and create hard resilient pavement layers and cement loose materials on the road.
It was learnt that FERMA had begun the use of base seal on road constructions in Katsina, Sokoto, Ekiti, Edo, Niger and Borno.