Umahi Concrete Road Technology Hits Another Rock

By legislatorvoice

Current Nigeria minister of works, Senator David Umahi, who is the immediate past governor of Ebonyi State, has been an advocate of a paradigm shift in road construction in Nigeria.

Umahi has campaigned vigorously that Concrete Cement pavements of roads more than bitumen asphalting, are more durable, easy to maintain and more resistant to pressure.

Umahi may be drawing from his eight years experience as the governor of Ebonyi where he deployed extensively the concrete pavement options in the construction of major roads in the State.

He had equally canvassed that concrete technology is cheaper as materials for such construction are sourced locally compared to bitumen that are imported.

He as well has highlighted the spiral benefits of job creation and encouragement to local manufacturers of Cement, the basic raw materials for concrete technology.

Buoyed by this arguments, the management of BUA Cement Plc, producers of BUA Cement in Nigeria, quickly queued behind Umahi and promised to reduce the price of Cement to as low as N3,500 per a 50kg bag as compared with the current price of N5,500.

Meanwhile, what seems a cheering news from Umahi has not gone down well with some stakeholders particularly the contractors working on these roads.

They have protested the proposal from the very moment it was muted, citing imminent rise on the price of Cement as a result of pressure on demand.

But their major grouse with the proposal is that it will distort already arranged contracts in which the bills of engineering measurement estimate, BEME, was already done, using bitumen asphalting as bidding base.

One of the contractors in the ministry who does not want his name in print argued that the durability claims of Umahi on Cement technology is not defensible if reference will be made to the same Concrete pavements Umahi did in Ebonyi state as governor.

The anonymous contractor stated that the collapse of major portions of Umahi concrete roads in Ebonyi just few months after exiting office as a governor cannot provide justifiable reasons, enough to extrapolate the same technology to the federal level.

But yesterday, October 19, 2023, Umahi spirited efforts to bequeath a paradigm shift in road construction in Nigeria got a major blow.

A motion to halt that idea of concrete road technology was tabled before the federal House of Representatives.

The motion on the need to investigate the Adoption of Concrete Technology for Road Construction in Nigeria was laid by Hon. Khadija Bukar Ibrahim on the floor of the House.

The member representing Damatura/Gujba/Gulani/Tarmuwa federalConstituency of Yobe State, called on her colleagues to

note that the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Works, has several ongoing road contracts across the country, including those awarded under the Federal Government Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme (RITCS) Executive Order 007 Phase II by NNPC valued at over Nl.4 trillion;

She also wants the House to note that the Federal Executive Council approved the awards of the contracts to which the Federal Ministry of Works, Department of Highway (bridges and design), in preparation for the implementation of the project.

The lawmaker further observed that a due process certificate of “No Objection” was granted by the Bureau of Public Procurement to the Federal Ministry of Works for the construction and rehabilitation of all the Federal road projects.

She went on to explain that she is aware that the Contractors submitted a Performance Guarantee of 10% of the contract sum to secure successful project completion, saying that she is

Concerned that the contract Agreements have strict liquidated damages Clauses with the supervision and monitoring by the Federal Ministry of Works to ensure that standard specifications are not compromised.

The Honourable member argued that she is also concerned that several studies have revealed that the use of rigid/cement concrete pavements in road construction has significant technical limitations and constraints.

Expressing her worries, she complained "that the Hon. Minister of Works' new policy on cement concrete pavement adoption without in-depth studies of the comparative advantages/disadvantages with asphalt may contradict technical specifications, which may potentially lead to contract breaches and may as well lead to potential arbitration and litigations during a challenging economic period the country like the one Nigeria is now confronted with," she stated.

Her motion elicited so much interest and anxiety among members, forcing the House to resolve to urge the Federal Ministry of Works to suspend in the interim the wholesome adoption of cement concrete for road construction pending the outcome of the investigation.

The House also mandated the Committees on Works, Environment, Finance and Judiciary to investigate the merit and demerit of using cement concrete for road construction and asphalt and report back within three (3) weeks for further legislative action.

However, it will be recalled that Umahi had threatened in the past that only God and President Bola Tinubu could stop him from going ahead with the concrete technology option. Observers believe that if such positions are maintained, Umahi may be heading into a collision course with the national Assembly.