Hope Dims For Reconstruction Of East-West, PH-Aba Expressways

Motorists, commuters and other users of the collapsed Eleme Junction-Trailer Park axis of the East-West road in Rivers State might be in for a very long wait in torture because findings by National Point have shown that it may take longer than they think for contractors to be mobilized to work on the road.
The 18-kilometre stretch of the dualized road, which links Port Harcourt and the heavy industries and ports complex in the Eleme/Onne cluster, has collapsed in many portions, forcing motorists to file into single lanes on the very busy road and causing logjams and holdups. From time to time, one or two articulated vehicles fall over spilling their content on the road. Where these collapsed trucks block passable portions of the road, it results in horrifying logjams that could take hours to clear.
A journey on that stretch, which ordinarily takes between 10 and 15 minutes, now takes close to an hour when there is no traffic jam but, at rush hours, things sometimes snap and the road is locked for several hours.
The road feeds giant industries like Indorama Eleme Chemical and Fertiliser Limited, the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone, Port Harcourt Refinery Complex and the Federal Ocean Terminal and smaller companies offering them services. It is also the preferred route to Akwa Ibom and Cross River States. The losses, both human and material, on the road have been monumental said Joseph Obele, chairman, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Port Harcourt Refinery branch, whose members use the road every day to transport petroleum products to other parts of the country from the Port Harcourt Refinery depot.
“We are dying on this road,” John Okpea, a member of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), and one of the drivers of the long articulated vehicles that move containers from the ports at Onne to Aba, Onitsha and other markets that import goods through Onne ports. Okpea said no week passes without several of their members’ trucks falling and incurring huge costs. “Sometimes, our members are injured or they damage other vehicles, which we have to pay heavily for. At times we record deaths,” he added.
Chief Bobo Brown, a former president of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), who uses the road often, said the horrible state of the East-West road as well as the Port Harcourt – Aba and Port Harcourt – Owerri road amounts to “a vicious and sustained strangulation of the state and national economies.”
He expressed regrets that the terrible situation on the road has been abetted by top politicians from the Niger Delta and South-East states.
“The grave-like state of the three roads are a testimonial of personal greed, political mischief-making and naked management of incompetence”.
Brown said the economic losses arising from the bad state of the road were monumental, and include additional cost of shipment and haulage transactions and destruction of rural and community roads which vehicles resort to when the major roads became impassable. “Imagine the extra cost for corporate personnel and business people afflicted with anxiety for daily use of the road,” he added.
He suggested that the state and local governments in the affected areas should mount pressure on the federal government to reconstruct the road.
About a year ago, the Federal Government promised to commence the reconstruction of the road as demanded by major stakeholders that shut down the road for seven days.
That promise soon died off after the road was reopened to traffic.
The Federal Government rekindled hopes for the project in January this year when President Muhammadu Buhari directed that the East-West road be moved from the Ministry of the Niger Delta to the better funded Federal Ministry of Works (FMW). Six months down the road, nothing has happened and the contractors, Reynolds Construction Company Limited, which did a palliative repair of the road after the protest on that road has since packed out of site.
However the Federal Controller of Works in Port Harcourt, Kehinde Koya, told National Point that the rehabilitation of the Eleme Junction – Trailer Park section of the road is on course as well as the rest of the East-Road in Rivers State.
He confirmed that the road has been transferred to the FMW, which is ready to swing into action as soon as the “technical details” of the transfer of the road to the ministry are completed.
He said the Federal Ministry of Works has the capacity and expertise to handle the road. “But right now we have to wait for the approvals by BPP (Bureau of Public Procurement) fine points of the review of the contracts,” he explained.
Despite the deteriorating state of federal roads in Rivers State, particularly the East-West road, findings by National Point showed that the contractors were not doing anything to provide palliative repairs of the roads. They have even left the sites.
Koya however, explained that the contractors usually carried out remedial repairs as part of their contracts. But with a review of the contracts going on, they might not want to commit their resources until the contracts are reviewed and sealed.
The Federal Controller of Works reassured that the Federal Government considers the East West Road a priority and restated a commitment given by President Muhammadu Buhari that he would inaugurate the road as part of a comprehensive road system planned for inauguration by government in Rivers State. The other roads are the Bodo – Bonny road, which is being jointly funded by the Federal Government and Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited, NLNG, the other stretch of the East-West road and the Port Harcourt – Aba Expressway.
Koya however said government has been carrying along the communities along the road as stakeholders so that they too could play their part in helping with security when the reconstruction starts.
At the time of going to press, National Point noticed the piling of hardcore at the GVC end of the road. Workers on ground said it was being done by the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA).