The Federal Road Maintenance Agency FERMA established several decades ago with the mandate to ensure that federal roads in the country are in motorable condition all year round, said it has over the years sustained road maintenance in spite of the lean resources of the agency, the Federal Road Maintenance Engineer for Nasarawa State, Engineer Yusuf Alfa spoke with our correspondent. Excerpts:
What is the state of federal roads in Nasarawa State?
FERMA’s responsibility as contained in the provisions of the act that establishes the agency is to ensure effective road maintenance, we are currently strengthening the pavements of the roads in Nasarawa State through complete over lay to increase the life span of the road for another 10 years because the roads have over lived its design life span, we are working on Keffi-Akwanga road Lafia-Doma road Keffi-Kittata road these are the three major contracts that are ongoing in the state outside of direct labour maintenance.
In spite of the limited funds available to the agency, we also do line drain to take water out of the road, you know water is an arch enemy of road, this we dounder direct labour maintenance. We also construct drain concrete lines to drain the water from the road to a preferred area and such projects are nearing completion.
How many kilometers of road is the agency working on and what is the state of direct labour work in the state?
Nasarawa State has about 700 kilometers of federal roads but the agency cannot work on all the roads at the same time, though a substantive percentage of the road net work?has been covered.?
Direct labour maintenance is to urgently respond to some emergency on the high ways for instance sudden collapse and failure of a section of a particular road and areas that are deplorable, so we officially write for such intervention projects and ensure the critical areas are worked on and given the desired attention.
The agency had in the past procured equipment for road construction, but you still hire plants and other machines for direct labour, are you not double spending?
Some of the equipment you mentioned mostly are leased out to contractors who don’t have the capacity to procure equipment but like the mini asphalt plants we use them to produce asphalt for direct labour maintenance producing 2,000 tones daily mainly for pot hole patching.
The big asphalt can be used for complete over lay but they are also hired out to contractors who don’t have much equipment to carry out some of the road construction and rehabilitation.
The agency at the state level ensure that road maintenance is carried out effectively with the limited resources made available to us considering the fact that federal roads across the country must be made motor able for effective commerce and transfer of goods and services.
We are operating within the yearly appropriations by the federal government and the agency has to work strictly in line with the provisions of the national budget which of course is a fundamental compass for delivery on the maintenance of roads in the country.
Let me remind you that roads are by the present circumstance the only means in which you can transfer goods and services considering the moribund state of the rail way and inland water ways for several decades and FERMA will be doing the country a disservice if the roads are allowed to go too bad for use.
The agency has constantly embarked on complete over lay and strengthening of the pavements on our roads which of course is capital intensive so we have moved from just pot hole patches to rehabilitation work rather than wait for contracts to be awarded by the federal executive council FEC we intervene in some of the failed sections of the roads to keep commuters in a moving state.
FERMA has developed cold asphalt and road mats, what is the extent of compliance?
The agency has been using road mats for patching of pot holes as well as commenced the use of cold asphalt but on the issue of recycling I don’t think we have equipment to carry out the recycling of asphalt but certainly is a veritable way of minimizing expenditure on the procurement of asphalt
One other constrain is the nation’s refineries that are not operating at maximum capacity to provide bitumen for the production of asphalt so often times we have to import bitumen for the production of asphalt, eventually the cost of production will be high.
It is cost effective to procure and produce materials for road maintenance and construction locally, haven’t evolved new methods of maintenance through locally produced asphalt and road mats.
What effort is the agency making to ensure the effective take off of Public Private Partnership PPP on roads?
The agency is actually working towards that direction because road business is not the function of government alone, it is not a universal practice of government to construct, rehabilitate and maintain roads without an effective partnership with the private sector.
It has to be a collaborative effort of government and the private sector major stakeholders are expected to express their interest on the building and maintenance of roads under PPP to recoup their investment over time.
We have industrialists and other notable business moguls in Nigeria that can invest on roads and make more money, again government will refocus in its yearly appropriation for?roads to drive growth in the economy.?
Road maintenance anywhere in the world is capital intensive and is public private driven and in the case of Nigeria the roads have over lived its life span, the engineering design for some roads are 25 years life expectant, but some of these roads are well over 40 years, you don’t expect such roads to be in good shape after being over pressured by heavy duty trucks.
Like I mentioned before the roads have been over used because of the absence of rail and water transport, in the early seventies most products transported by road where conveyed by rail and water.
Again, government has to look at the resuscitation of these two means of transportation to complement the road sub-sector for effective transportation in the country especially to promote commerce.
The deplorable state of roads is one fundamental constrain besides power that Nigerians expect the present administration to focus on what is the level of preparedness on the part of FERMA?
We have only one mandate which is to ensure that the state of federal roads are put in a condition that Nigerians can move from one section of the country to another without so much hazards and reduce accident rates.
The agency is committed to this mandate to the extent that some states roads that are of very urgent importance benefits from this loudable government initiative to sustain road maintenance across the country.
We are currently extending the supervision services and monitoring to accurately take statistics of road net work to enhance performance and effective coverage of road contracts and direct labour maintenance.
FERMA has gone beyond mere pot hole patches so the responsibility has advanced to give Nigerians good roads, we still appeal to relevant authorities charged with the responsibility of appropriations to give desired attention to road maintenance through the national budget. ?