MasterTeeUSA:
The issue here is two fold...no steel reinforcement and the thickness of the concrete road. Concrete is by far better than Bitumen and easily maintained with more cement ...and they need to also limit the loads on our roads.

That is actually quite wrong. For starters, steel reinforcements are absolutely useless when building roads. The main issue here is that the idi0ts that built those roads forgot to take thermal expansion into account, when the sun comes up, that hard cement will expand and crack, and with regular use, completely destroyed in a matter of months. What a real engineer would have done if he wanted to build roads with cement would have been to do it block-wise, putting flexible buffers between each and every block that make up the road to allow for afore-mentioned thermal expansion. In tar roads, it is the tar that serves the dual purpose of adhesive and flexible buffer between the gravel that it is mixed with.

Zonefree:
Using Lagos and Ogun standard, these roads are clean.

Lagos is trying o.

But Ogun na hell.

Oya. Show us bitumen roads that were done by the past administration. If this is all you could get from hundreds of Kilometres road done by Hon Dave Umahi. Corruption is really fighting back. You guys were importing adulterated Bitumen at an exhorbinant price. Abeg, next topic in Wike's voice!

Corruption fighting back . These roads are still far better than most federal roads constructed with asphalt. I've seen very excellent cement roads in Lagos and I say these people don't have any argument

uuzba:

There's iron rods in that one.
Iron rods add reinforcement to make the concrete stronger to take more load.
This one in the picture just looks like only cement without iron rods.
And the cement seems very light, maybe 50mm to 100mm thick. That thing will crack like breakable plate.

Iron rods are actually quite useless when it comes to roads. What made those roads crack was thermal expansion. Under hot sun, the cement will expand, and since it has nowhere to expand to it will develop cracks, no matter how many iron rods that is in it.

how come anything good turns bad once Nigerian politicians and elders touch it
the concrete road into Accra that was constructed during the time of Nkrumah is still there with very minimal maintenance.
Tema motorway into Accra was constructed in 1965 and it is still there till today, our own useless politicians and leaders did their own just 2 years ago and it has already turned into death traps, where are we going in this country ??

CoronaVirusPro:


You said it all!

As if roads in advance countries don't degrade!

Can you tell us how those cracked cement will be repaired? It seems that Ebonyi people were scammed for 8 yrs by a fraudster.

boss the ones constructed since 1965 in Accra Ghana are still there oooo, with heavy trucks and vehicles passing it every time day and night and under the same weather conditions as Nigeria's weather. lets not make any excuses for these politicians' and leaders mistakes or just incompetence. i can bet you that if it is umahi own personal money he used in constructing those roads for his business and residence ,he would have done a better job

Alusiizizi:


Iron rods are actually quite useless when it comes to roads. What made those roads crack was thermal expansion. Under hot sun, the cement will expand, and since it has nowhere to expand to it will develop cracks, no matter how many iron rods that is in it.

Zonefree:
Using Lagos and Ogun standard, these roads are clean.

Very very clean

This shows incompetence.

Not understanding material science and engineering. Has cost Nigeria finances trillions, then the added corruption money involved is almost a trillion.

We think say na to snap picture with oyibo be the only wisdom. While you were 419 ing their people, they were 419-ing your future.


Any African country that thinks that Europe or asia will come and build infrastructure like roads and buildings for them, is an unserious country. They will rather financially invest or donate money, than build it. These countries are loosing those kinds of labor skills. Latin America are the labor builders now, especially for 12 stories and below; even them will soon graduate to designers only like the Europeans and some parts of Asia. Sometimes their theories are wrong, because they are loosing the labor skills; one wrong mix or missed timing can compromise cement roads before they harden.

These developed countries are still good in agricultural labor and skills, they are good with engine design and production, they are good with computers, and medicine research. They don't have time to come and be building one place for an African wanna be king. If na big company you call, dem go just send some low ranking personnel to go supervise the work, send one high ranking person to go close the deal. That loe ranking person, go use your project learn, get im trade hours up.


Africa lacks experts and leadership.
Africa also lacks growth mindset. Skills like infrastructure, takes 7 to 8 years to master. It is a team work. Also knowing what to do when a machinery is not available.

Africa is dead last in machinery building.
Africa is suppose to be the highest builders of cranes, all sorts of cranes. Any building, any building related thing, any road, any road machinery, any road maintenance and upgrade, Africa are suppose to be the experts of that, for the next 50 years. Not just in labor, but also in design and research.


Hopefully the incompetent projects no dey everywhere like that.

Alusiizizi:


Iron rods are actually quite useless when it comes to roads. What made those roads crack was thermal expansion. Under hot sun, the cement will expand, and since it has nowhere to expand to it will develop cracks, no matter how many iron rods that is in it.

You sound like an engineer or I presume you to be one. In the concrete pavement construction, there's always expansivity gap between the transverse and longitudinal joints even though I still agree with you that it's in sufficient but it's far better than our current asphalt.

onatisi:
boss the ones constructed since 1965 in Accra Ghana are still there oooo, with heavy trucks and vehicles passing it every time day and night and under the same weather conditions as Nigeria's weather. lets not make any excuses for these politicians' and leaders mistakes or just incompetence. i can bet you that if it is umahi own personal money he used in constructing those roads for his business and residence ,he would have done a better job

I think you aren't understanding my point. Thermal expansion is what made those roads crack. What a real engineer would have done with cement roads was to build it block-wise with flexible buffer between every block, so that when the blocks expand under the sun they will have somewhere to expand to and not end up breaking. That's probably how they built the road that you're referring to in Accra.

KillahPriest:
Corruption fighting back . These roads are still far better than most federal roads constructed with asphalt. I've seen very excellent cement roads in Lagos and I say these people don't have any argument

At least David Umahi did something

Do you want to listen to those supporting those that didn't even do a quarter of what Dave Umahi did

Alusiizizi:


I think you aren't understanding my point. Thermal expansion is what made those roads crack. What a real engineer would have done with cement roads was to build it block-wise with flexible buffer between every block, so that when the blocks expand under the sun they will have somewhere to expand to and not end up breaking. That's probably how they built the road that you're referring to in Accra.

And a mistake we are making in Nigeria is that we assume cement roads to be maintenance free! No road, be it bitumen, asphalt or concrete is maintenance free. The enemy of any road is still particulate (sand, gravel etc) on the road and pooled water.

A concrete road may need less maintenance, but it doesn't mean zero maintenance.

NwaliE01:

You sound like an engineer or I presume you to be one. In the concrete pavement construction, there's always expansivity gap between the transverse and longitudinal joints even though I still agree with you that it's in sufficient but it's far better than our current asphalt.

I am an engineer, yes, and you are absolutely correct, there is always expansivity gap between every single block that make up the road, at least the ones that were built by real engineers. You are correct also, cement roads are better and more durable than asphalt roads. Mid-day sun, especially in this part of the world is rich in ionizing radiation like ultra-violet light, while this radiation has relatively negligible effect on concrete it will progressively degrade asphalt, and this of crucial importance because asphalt serves not only as the adhesive but also the "expansivity gap" between the gravel that it is mixed with, and when this asphalt is degraded and the adhesion lost, all you end up with after a while is a road that is made of mostly gravel.

Alusiizizi:


Iron rods are actually quite useless when it comes to roads. What made those roads crack was thermal expansion. Under hot sun, the cement will expand, and since it has nowhere to expand to it will develop cracks, no matter how many iron rods that is in it.

Iron rods basically turn the road into a bridge resting on the ground. That's the purpose.
So the way they put expansion joint on bridges is the way they should put on the road.
And such a road will behave just like a bridge ie, NOT crack.
I don't know if these roads in the pictures had expansion joints. But without iron rods, concrete will crack due to bending forces from moving vehicles.

COMPAQ:


And a mistake we are making in Nigeria is that we assume cement roads to be maintenance free! No road, be it bitumen, asphalt or concrete is maintenance free. The enemy of any road is still particulate (sand, gravel etc) on the road and pooled water.

A concrete road may need less maintenance, but it doesn't mean zero maintenance.

That is indeed correct. Hopefully they will learn this, be it in the near or distant future.

Alusiizizi:


There is a reason why roads are built with tar, and why we need actual civil engineers, who understand the reason why uniform cement will always fail, to build those roads. Even roads that you find that are built with cement will be done block-wise with compressible buffers in-between each block because civil engineers know that objects generally expand when heated. In tar roads, the tar serves the purpose of both adhesive and flexible buffer between the stones that they are mixed with.

Ironically, Umahi, the governor who initiated and supervised the projects, is a civil engineer.

Hpesoj:


Ironically, Umahi, the governor who initiated and supervised the projects, is a civil engineer.

I know, which is why I found this news all the more pathetic.

Ayodeoba:
That means it’s a bad idea to build road with cement, but that doesn’t mean umahi didn’t perform

With our terrible attitude towards maintenence, cement roads (if well done) should be a life saver for us. These are substandard nonsense and to say someone who superintended over these substandard nonsense "performed" just goes to show why we get the leaders we get

Roboto11:
When exactly were the roads constructed?

Worst case, 8 years ago. For cement road to fail like this after 8 years says a lot of the quality of the engineer and materials used

uuzba:


Iron rods basically turn the road into a bridge resting on the ground. That's the purpose.
So the way they put expansion joint on bridges is the way they should put on the road.
And such a road will behave just like a bridge ie, NOT crack.
I don't know if these roads in the pictures had expansion joints. But without iron rods, concrete will crack due to bending forces from moving vehicles.

They didn't have a single expansion joints. Those spacings that you saw were cracks due to damage and not engineered there in any way. Also, for concrete slabs that are simply laying on horizontal ground, those iron rods are unnecessary over-kill. You need them in bridges because bridges have to endure all sorts of forces, including strain, torsion and a host of others.

Karemarealty288:
This is minor damage that will not cost much to repair....why blackmailing the man that changed the face of Dust of the nation( Ebonyi state)

Forget the critics, Umahi never claim that cement roads can't be damaged but the damage can't be compared with asphalt roads.

Ironically, cement traders joins road contractors in the game of criticizing the minister , while the cement traders are suppose to be happy over that policy proposal.

Hahahaha

Aren’t cement roads more durable than asphalt? I remember reading it was the reason most US roads are made of the mixture.

Oh, concrete. Concrete roads are better. This man scammed the people by using cement. Thief.

Inshort,very stupid and nonsensical airport

Kobicove:
The money they wasted in building that stupid airport could have been put to better use

Alusiizizi:


I know, which is why I found this news all the more pathetic.

Lol. I understand that he uses his company for most of the contrast. I don't know how true this is.

Alusiizizi:


Can you tell us how those cracked cement will be repaired? It seems that Ebonyi people were scammed for 8 yrs by a fraudster.

They are always patched just like roads. Their is a process of doing that. I do know they dig that portion out first before laying a fresh concrete on it.

Hmm
End of discussion