Bad Roads: FG Meets with Julius Berger Officials, Set to Review Contracts Nationwide

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The federal government yesterday said that it had opened discussions with Julius Berger on all ongoing road projects nationwide, with a view to reviewing and expediting work on them.
A statement by the Ministry of Works signed by David Umahi’s spokesman, Uchenna Orji, said that this was in keeping  with the directive of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) with respect  to all inherited and new projects being  handled by a number  of multi national companies  being  delayed due to issues of price differentials or poor  funding.

It said the discussions aimed at appraising  the  performance and take decisions on funding and milestones completion of all such awarded projects, as part  of the measures to mitigate  the sufferings of road users in Nigeria.
The statement followed a meeting of the ministry with the management  of Julius Berger Plc held at the ministry’s headquarters in Mabushi, Abuja.
Speaking on the resolutions reached  during  the meeting, the Umahi reiterated  the firmness of the  ministry on issues of price  control, commitment  of contractors  to project execution, value  for money, and uniform  pricing location  by location.

He decried the ‘unacceptable’ conditions of some of the inherited and new projects of all ongoing federal roads awarded  to Julius Berger Plc, which are within  the economic  corridor of the nation and which were being  delayed  due to issues of price differentials or lack of effective funding.
He listed the projects affected to include: The  82km by 2 ‘dualization’ of section of Abuja-Kaduna- Zaria- Kano highway; phase 2 of Lagos-Ibadan expressway; section 2A bypass at the 2nd Niger Bridge; the Bodo-Bonny road funded  by  NLNG Tax Credit and the under-deck structural works on 3rd Mainland bridge, Iddo bridge and Carter bridge.

The minister urged  the contractor to be open to a mutually  agreed modality for milestone execution and funding of the projects at reviewed  rates as may be agreed upon and approved  by FEC.
On  the  section of Abuja Kaduna- Zaria-Kano road agreed to be handled by Julius Berger Plc, he commended  the quality of work being done but directed  the contractor to stick to one carriageway at a time within the scope and conclude their works.
The contractor was further  directed to, within  three weeks,  fill the two carriageways  with stone base and level  it to alleviate the sufferings of road users.
He further said: “We agreed that this project, within their own corridor, will last for 14 months. Project execution should be deployed in four sections, and we’ll be paying Berger N20 billion every month to get the job completed.”

On  the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, phase 2, he said the ministry  had no choice  but  to determine  the contract and ask the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) for  ‘No Objection’  for selective tendering.
 On the Bodo-Bonny project being  funded  by NLNG Tax Credit, the  minister expressed concerns that Julius Berger Plc, though  had mobilised back to site after additional cost of N80 billon was approved for the work, but reports showed  that the pace of work was slow.
He was further  worried  that they came up with a longer timeline of 16 months within which  to deliver  the project  against the December 2024 deadline proposed  by the  ministry.

He said:  “Finally, we agreed on an additional cost of N80 billion, which will bring the project to about N280 billion fixed and non-varying with the unit rates agreed, and we agreed that this project will not increase in cost beyond N280 billion”.
He urged  the  contractor to shift ground to a shorter  timeline  for the sake of the people. Concerning the under-deck structural works on 3rd Mainland Bridge, Iddo bridge, Carter Bridge in Lagos State, he commended  the contractor for  doing a good work.
On the Odukpani road in Cross River State, he said: “We have got  approval from FEC to increase their project by N36 billion, thereby raising the project cost from N54 billion to N90 billion.
“This was just approved for a few days ago. We want to know their response on that. Yes, we have agreed to change the pavement to concrete, and our position is that they have to engage on one carriageway when we agree on this.

 “It is when we agree on all these ones where that we do not have complete funding that we can enter into the second phase of what FEC directed, and that  is to discuss the mechanism,” he stressed.

In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Adam Kofarmata,, stated that some of the ongoing road projects handled by contractors required emergency  works to alleviate  the sufferings of road users.

He assured  that all the supervising engineers would be on their toes to ensure  that the ministry’s  policy of ‘Operation Free our Roads’ was carried  out by all the contractors handling federal government roads nationwide.

 On the section of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Highway handled by Julius Berger Plc, He said: “We have requested this emergency  work due to the flow of information and the requests that we’ve been getting from Nigerians plying Abuja to Kano, more especially  Abuja to Kaduna road, where a number of big craters  have been created on that road”.