Umahi: Tinubu ending 30-year legacy of substandard roads with durable infrastructure

He explained that roads constructed in the country for the past 30 years had been substandard, saying, “because each administration works on them every time.

“The question you ask is actually why? The reason is because of our construction method and that is why I tagged it that President Bola Tinubu is not constructing roads. He’s building roads.

“That is what I insisted, that we will use this road to show example of what we can do when we had the courage to take the project from Julius Berger.

“But one significant thing that the President is doing is that he is building roads

“Shortly, we will see the roads. What statement is the President making? He is telling you that the roads he is building under his administration is going to last between 50 and 100 years. You are not touching it.

“The problem of this country is that there is none of the major roads built in this country in the past 30, 40 years that each administration has not been working on.”

He faulted that the model contractors have been using to do the roads adding that the method of construction has been the problem.

He said, “When Julius Berger was doing the job, they removed the asphalt. They said they want to grind it with laterite.

“It is not a good construction method because they brought new laterite on the road.

“There is what is called Californian Bearing Ratio(CBR), it is the strength of the sub-base.

“So, when you remove this and you bring fresh laterite, the compaction, consolidation, will not be as the one that has consolidated for over the years.

“So, it is bound to fail and that is why you see that what Julius Berger completed was beginning to see failures, even while they were still constructing.”

Umahi explained that asphalt had a shelf life of 25 years, saying, ” so, after 25 years ot starts wearing off.”