DILAPIDATED BENIN-AGBOR ROAD RECIEVING FACELIFT

 

The dilapidated Benin-Agbor road in Ikpoba Okha local government area in Edo state is currently undergoing rehabilitation effort by Sermatec Nigeria limited

Recall that the bad situation of the road prompted the Ikpoba Hill Youths to barricade the road for weeks last year to draw the attention of government to the deplorable condition of the road and as a result, the Godwin Obaseki led government intervened and SKAFF Construction Company did some palliatives which is already being washed away by floods.

Isiah Samuel, a petrol attendant in one of the filling stations around Charly Auto in the area who spoke with this reporter said that the deplorable road situation before the initial palliative carried out on the road by Skaff Construction Company limited through the intervention of the Edo state government of Godwin Obaseki reduced their sales adding that before the road got totally bad that they were making good sales but that the sales dropped drastically as the condition of the road got worsened as motorists started avoiding the dilapidated Benin-Agbor road.

" But we are excited to see Construction work going on now and we just hope that it is not like the one done by SKAFF sometimes around November last year which is completely washed away now after the first three rains of this January".

Another respondent, Mr Anthony Oriafoh, a commercial bus driver said that the deplorable road situation of the road starting from Tony D through Ikhuen down to bypass has been a nightmare to motorists and other road users until the Edo state government of Godwin Obaseki intervened sometimes last year to do some palliatives which improved the situation until this February when the first three rains washed away the sand and the stone base only to bring the road back to its present bad state.

" We just hope that the repair they want to do now is not like that first one that didn't last at all, but we pray that they do this one well so that we will not be having the challenge of repairing our vehicles every now and then because the bad situation of the road frequently destroy our vehicles"

Also speaking with this reporter at the work site, a resident of the area, Mrs Ivie Ijioduwa pleaded with the government to do a proper rehabilitation that would stand the test of time.

" Last year, this road was a-no-go- area as the road was completely cut off and motorists spent weeks and days to navigate the crevices of the road from Benin to Agbor. The government did some palliative which was just stone base and sand but it didn't last as the first three rains have completely washed off the palliative effort.

" We are just praying that they do a proper rehabilitation of the road before the rains start because we don't want a repeat of that ugly experience of last year".

Speaking with this reporter at the construction site around the bypass, the project manager of SERMATEC Nigeria limited, the construction company handling the rehabilitation works from Ramat to Bypass and the bypass section from Oluku to Utesi, Engr Godwin Iweka said that the rehabilitation works on the Oluku through to Utesi has been completed and attention now is on the rehabilitation works on the Ramat axis to the bypass area on the Benin-Agbor road. He said that drainages were not part of the contractual agreement but because of the fact that roads without drainages don't last, they are, as responsible construction company, have on their own, decided to make earth drains with their excavators in Azagba and Ahor axis so that water would stay off the pavement of the road adding that they would make provisions for such earth drains along the Benin-Agbor road starting from the Ramat axis.

According to him, " we would be able to do similar earth drains along the Benin-Agbor road to keep floods off the road but the only fear we have, looking from the right side from Ramat, the land is higher than the road area and as such you find water consistently coming to the road and such is the constraints regarding the Benin-Agbor road, but we will see what we can do to find ways of making intermittent water collection areas as detention point to mitigate the flow of water to the road during rain storm".

On the issue of the life expectancy of roads without proper drainages, Engineer Iweka said that,

" we have ensured that we have a very good and well compacted surface so that even when there is incursion of water around it , it gives reasonable resistance but doesn't just give way like that and again we are trying to build the road slightly higher than what was originally there before as you can see our stone base is already higher than the existing road and by the time we lay our asphalt we will have something higher than the existing road surface and added to the earth drains that we are providing, it will keep water collection off the road and that will help preserve the road for a reasonable period of time.  

He said that he is optimistic like every person is, that the federal ministry of works would sooner than later put machinery in place to initiate a complete reconstruction of the roads. 

Also Speaking with this reporter at the rehabilitation site, the Chairman of Ikpoba Hill Youths Association, who was recently honoured by the Social Works department of the University of Benin with an award of honour for philanthropy, Comrade Kingsley Osemwingie, said that the award he got from the University of Benin was in recognition of his social services to humanity adding that the Benin-Agbor road which is under rehabilitation works now was in deplorable condition sometime in the past last year but that he was able to mobilize the Youths through peaceful protests which drew the attention of the Edo state government for the initial palliative intervention which mitigated the harrowing experiences of motorists and other road users.

According to him, "we are here to support the contractor handling the rehabilitation works because this community belongs to all of us because without the support of the Youths of the community it would be difficult for the contractors, that is why you see me and my Youths coming around to give our support in the area of providing security and helping to control traffic.

"We appreciate the Edo state governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki who intervened during our protests last year and provided some palliatives on the deplorable condition of the road and we remain grateful to him because if not for that intervention by now the situation would have degenerated to something else. So, we are happy for that intervention and now that the federal government has initiated another round of intervention on the road with up to 50 percent of rehabilitation work, we are optimistic that such intervention would also serve for sometimes before a complete reconstruction work would be done hopefully.

" We are not too comfortable with the palliative work but what can we do? We were expecting a complete reconstruction of the road but since this is what we have for now, we will take what we have and hope for the better as they say, half bread is better than non. We are however waiting for the federal government to come up with a comprehensive program of complete reconstruction as the road in question is critically strategic as it is the link road to the Eastern, Northern and the Western states of Nigeria. However, we the Ikpoba Hill Youths appreciate the federal government for coming up with the rehabilitation works on our road while we are looking forward to a more comprehensive reconstruction work on the road in no distant time".