Monday, November 9, 2009


FG awards N12.2b contracts for repair of Lagos-Benin road
By Chinedu Uwaegbulam

IN the wake of mounting public complaints over the deplorable state of the Lagos-Benin Expressway, the Federal Government has awarded contracts to the tune of N12. 2 billion for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of two sections of the road.



http://odili.net/news/source/2009/nov/9/21.html

Two multinational civil engineering firms commissioned to execute the contracts are Messrs Reynolds Construction Company Limited (RCC), handling the Salami - Ajebandele - Ore - Benin Road Section I (Ajebandele - Ofosu road in Ondo State) and Messrs Borini Prono and Company Nigeria Limited for the repair of Shagamu - Ajebandele - Ore - Benin Road Section II in Ogun State. They have a completion period of 30 and 18 months in that order.

The Reynolds contract is worth N9, 745,402,329.89 while the Borini Prono and Company Nigeria Limited job is put at a cost of N2, 498,934,091.50. Both contractors have already commenced work on their respective sections of the road.

Minister of Works, Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Hassan Lawal, who visited the sites with Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State as part of his tour of projects in the South West geo-political zone, disclosed that government is embarking on total reconstruction of some sections of the road to ameliorate the suffering of commuters.

He called on Nigerians to appreciate the "modest efforts of the President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua administration," as the Shagamu - Benin road is the longest stretch in the country. "We will endeavour to reconstruct this road for the comfort and benefit of the commuters and Nigerians," he said.

Mimiko had appealed to the minister to hasten work on the road and make adequate budgetary allocations to ensure that commuters do not face a harrowing experience during the forthcoming holidays.

He appealed to the contractors not to relent on their efforts to carry out palliative measures on some of the bad portions, but advised the commuters to be patient with the contractors.

Mimiko noted that some of the traffic problems on the route were due to indiscipline among commuters. He advised that a combined team of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) personnel, the police and probably military officers should be stationed to monitor and control traffic on the route during the construction period and the Christmas holidays.

The minister hinted said that six weigh bridges are to be installed in different part of the country to control overloading by trucks. Nigeria's axle load is put at 30 tones, which most transporters ignore. Three of the weigh bridges will be installed before the end of next month.

According to Lawal, the long neglect of the rail and water transport sub-sectors had resulted in the roads having to bear the heavy burden of carrying the volume of traffic across the country, resulting in high impact on the roads, dilapidation and degradation, as well as placing high financial demands on public sector funding.

The ministry is reportedly collaborating with FRSC officials to implement the 30 tones axle loading per truck rule. Offenders are to be fined and the excess loads discharged.

Meanwhile, the ministry has embarked on the construction of a school to train architectural technicians at Kuje, Abuja. The main classroom block has been completed, while the two hostel blocks are at their various stages of completion. The school, which is expected to take-off as soon, is positioned to produce intermediate manpower for the construction industry in the country.

Let us pray that this time around, the Lagos-Benin Expressway is not only fixed, but fixed for good.

Two multinational civil engineering firms commissioned to execute the contracts are Messrs Reynolds Construction Company Limited (RCC), handling the Salami - Ajebandele - Ore - Benin Road Section I (Ajebandele - Ofosu road in Ondo State) and Messrs Borini Prono and Company Nigeria Limited for the repair of Shagamu - Ajebandele - Ore - Benin Road Section II in Ogun State. They have a completion period of 30 and 18 months in that order.

Finally, Ore will stop being a nightmare for travelers.

what happened to the billions of dollars that were previously budgeted for repair of this road during obasanjo regime,,?,,mr fix it "Anenih" was the minister for works,so why is efcc not prosecuting Anenih for this,afterall,bode george is in prison for corruption,,

Ha ha let Pastor Eunuch handle the road repairs, for he does have the money.

His disciples are already posting pictures of random roads and claiming that they were built by Eunuch. Better still, let someone post a few pictures of Oxford Street in London, and then claim it to be another of the roads fixed by the good pastor.

Hallelujah ! The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Jakumo Janpata

You make no sense- your brain is inside your butt hole, i suppose?

walakolobo:

Jakumo Janpata

You make no sense- your brain is inside your butt hole, i suppose?

Gee, while I am flattered by your gay solicitation, I regret to inform you that I only ever copulate with women. Thanks all the same though.

who care for repair of the same road. yar adua should award an expressway from okitipupa to akure to ado ekiti to kabba to lokoja. and another one from Ilorin to lokoja. Not the same filling of pot hole.

@Jakumo

Your brain needs more RAM, fo so.

How many times will contract be awarded for a particular road - and still no changes -

becomrich,:

who care for repair of the same road. yar adua should award an expressway from okitipupa to akure to ado ekiti to kabba to lokoja. and another one from Ilorin to lokoja. Not the same filling of pot hole.

Without MAPS, your request will not be understood by the powers that be. Please do the right thing NOW !

Another time wasting strategy! Surprised a lot of you are falling for it!
I'll go with Jak on this one, Adeoye should fix the oad all the way to Abuja, he can afford it and we would vote for him!

It took them so long to award that contract. Lets hope it will be done for good

30 months completion time? WTF?! That's 2.5 years to fix a road. What kind of contract is that? What are Nigerians expected to do in that time interval?

Absolute rubbish!

He called on Nigerians to appreciate the "modest efforts of the President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua administration," as the Shagamu - Benin road is the longest stretch in the country.

Thunder fire Yar' adua and Minister 'modest efforts'

'modest efforts' like you are doing us a favour.

If only the contract will be executed, lets watch and see

Jakumo:

Ha ha let Pastor Eunuch handle the road repairs, for he does have the money.

His disciples are already posting pictures of random roads and claiming that they were built by Eunuch. Better still, let someone post a few pictures of Oxford Street in London, and then claim it to be another of the roads fixed by the good pastor.

Hallelujah ! The Lord works in mysterious ways.

What does Adeboye has to do with this, I can see you are less busy

Na wa o

one day the road is supposed to be privatised, next day it has been award to messers xyz next day another award

why cant this dumb journalist bring out his archive to see how many times the road has been awarded!

I even doubt this story sef cos i watched nta last night and the minister was there with mimiko talking to the engineers meaning the contract wasnt awarded recently seeing as tehy have done some section already!!!!

_{***Rings bell****} lunch time .This is another avenue by all these leaders to siphon money again

Oh here we go again. . .

I wonder what RCC is still doing winning road contracts! Have they finished the Ibadan-Ife road?

2 and a half years for a road ? Na wa o

30 months completion time? WTF?! That's 2.5 years to fix a road. What kind of contract is that? What are Nigerians expected to do in that time interval?

Absolute rubbish!

really this is complete nonsense, how could a mere road repair of that length last for 30 months, yet another delay tactic to upturn
our political moneygrubber "Tif dem dem"
well, we are watching the drama!

I hope they're not just going to do their usual wishy-washy job??

700john:

30 months completion time? WTF?! That's 2.5 years to fix a road. What kind of contract is that? What are Nigerians expected to do in that time interval?

Exactly,especially with the coming yuletide season when the road is expected to experience an upsurge in traffic,to which alternative route will the contractors divert the traffic to once they mount their boards that normally read"IVERSION;SLOW MEN AT WORK",they are always slow men

Good one.

~Bluetooth:

what happened to the billions of dollars that were previously budgeted for repair of this road during obasanjo regime,,?,,mr fix it "Anenih" was the minister for works,so why is efcc not prosecuting Anenih for this,afterall,bode george is in prison for corruption,,

becomrich,:

who care for repair of the same road. yar adua should award an expressway from okitipupa to akure to ado ekiti to kabba to lokoja. and another one from Ilorin to lokoja. Not the same filling of pot hole.

Please my brodas, do not mind this half brain and useless leaders. They know election is around the corner and the only thing they can do is trying to tell people that they are working on it. They need to stop patching and patching the roads over and over. They need to do it like USA. Remove everything and resurface it or construct a new road. obasanjo did the same thing when he wanted to rerun for president.

two and half years to repair that stretch of road is not out of order. before people start criticising they should realize that its benin to lagos we are talking about which is over 200km. the contractors factor in various issues including weather etc in judging the lenght of time it may take.
that said, and like several persons already pointed out, this is not the first time [hopefully the last] that RCC has been awarded contracts to repair the road. they have always done a bad job, which has always goes to pieces come rainy seasons.
also do people realize that mr fix it anthony anenih is a significant shareholder in RCC and that during his tenure as minister of works virtually all his road contracts that never saw the light of day were awarded to the same company!

Just like my father said the last time we visited Nigeria. He said that Benin-Lagos will never be repair because the road is two long. Let say for example, if one start from Lagos, by the time you repair it to Benin in two years time, the place where you started will starts going bad again. The road where not maintain in first place. The earlier they start with road the better. Patching and patching is a waste of time.

Jakumo:

Gee, while I am flattered by your gay solicitation, I regret to inform you that I only ever copulate with women. Thanks all the same though.

dead lol
Jakumo never fails to crack me up

@topic
lets hope and pray the contract is executed this time.

[b]Hope, it's all for the best!  But what about Benin Asaba Road up to the Niger Bridge that's been crying out for reconstruction/maintenance since INDEPENDENCE - 1960? Almost 50years, yet nothing had been done on that road. Or should it wait for another 50 years for the Federal Govt to realise the logistic importance of that road to Nigerian economy. Certainly, they know but it directly leads to Igboland no bi so  For that reason, it doesn't really need any consideration let alone reconstruction, abi?? Imagine the accidents and loss of lives on that road, no one cares about it - do they?

In terms of these Federal Government contract awards, many peoples on here have complained about the continuous award of contracts to a "Non Runner". I can not understand why waste our money, giving contracts upon contracts to inept and inefficient construction companies of this nature? Why? Shouldn't we strive for Nigerians gains/benefits instead of losses and misery?

Wouldn't it be much beneficial to Nigerians to see these contracts awarded to reputable construction companies like Julius Berger and other equally efficient foreign construction companies that would deliver quality goods in prime time, instead of these HOME BABIES that are not only sucking their mothers dry but also, biting off their nipples.  Isn't it time, those in power examine their conscience if they have any, in their consideration of what is best for Nigerians in this aspect - whether QUALITY OR QUANTITY? Obviously, in their views Nigerians deserve QUANTITY hence the awards of contracts to inept HOME COMPANIES.  

Also, some contributor on here are making excuses for these construction companies in the light of their obvious incompetencies. I can't stop wondering how they mean and why the construction companies could not deliver the goods in 30 months as scheduled? In my view, these excuses are absolutely CRAP! How do you mean? Excuses like the climate, rainy season etc are considered a hindrance in completing these tasks as mandated, how? 

If these companies are unable to deliver on the mandate due to the above excuses then, our assumptions about them are correct - they are INEFFICIENT and not worthy being called construction companies let alone worthy of our contracts because, they can not compete on any level and, if they can not compete why give them our contracts 

In the West, construction companies are much busier with construction work in the THICK OF WINTER MONTHS than any other times in the year ASK ANYONE who knows exactly where they've been and understand the people they came to visit (not everyone that comes here knows the people anyway and don't bother with those living in the CITIES and never goes anywhere 'cos they don't actually interact or know the people they came to visit let alone to tell you what's going on in the country side.

So, these excuses about rainy season, flood, harmattan etc are rubbish and if these construction companies continues to complain about Nigerian weather, I challenge them to come over here and see the weather in ACTION.  
In spite of the bad weather, white people care about their country and do their best to make life much easier for everyone. Besides, we the "Migrants" also have to go to work to make a living irrespective of the bad weather so why can't those in much fairer weather do better than us instead of giving crap excuses?  The answer is pure laziness and nothing more!

So, construction companies in Africa and in particular, Nigeria should be grateful for the weather we have and stop giving lame excuses for their lazy a-ses and get on with the job of sucking our money without delivering the goods and, no one to query why not?[/b]

i hope they will get it done this time, Pls,help me tell Mr. Fix It that Bode the theif is waiting for him in Kirikiri

luv2talk:

i hope they will get it done this time, Pls,help me tell Mr. Fix It that Bode the theif is waiting for him in Kirikiri

For the N320bn he take repair imaginary roads ba?

The sad part is that there is no quality control in road construction all over the country. These guys will pour coal tar over red mud and we are all happy. Hurray! Lagos to Benin 1 hr! The rains come, we start moaning all over again.

Has anyone noticed that no mention was made of the life span of the road to be repaired?