RCC Returns To Site On East-West Road

The contractor handling the reconstruction of the Eleme axis of the East West-West road, Reynolds Construction Company Limited (RCC) has returned to site barely a week after the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, ordered suspension of work on the project.
RCC returned to site just as Rivers State Governor, Mr. Siminalayi Fubara, promised that the state government was working hard to complete rehabilitation of the old Port Harcourt – Bori road to provide alternative to the traffic that use the East-West road.
The governor, who also inspected work on the new 6.5-kilometre Woji-Aleto-Alesa road, said the state government was concerned about the suffering of motorists, transporters and commuters that use the very busy East – West road and would try to provide them with the alternative routes. He said the completion of the bridge project on the Woji-Aleto-Alesa road is the major challenge of that project for now.
The Works Minister had about two weeks ago ordered stoppage of work on the site after he discovered that the contractor was using inferior materials as the base of the road.
Umahi had visited the site on inspection for the second time since work commenced on the project in October 2023. He said he was shocked that the contractor had totally ignored his directive that it should not use sand laden with clay to lay the base of the road.
The minister, who visited with the senator representing Rivers South-East in the National Assembly, Senator Barry Mpigi, randomly packed the sand in his hands and washed it off with water to show that what the contractor was using was not sharp river sand but clay.
Umahi reprimanded engineers of the Federal Ministry of Works supervising the project for failing to direct the contractor on the proper materials to use for the road and warned that there would be consequences for engineers that failed to do their duties.
He therefore directed that henceforth only engineers registered by COREN (Council for the Registration of Engineers in Nigeria) should supervise the project.
He also ordered the ministry’s engineers in Port Harcourt and the contractors to report to his office in Abuja for further directives from him.
The minister lamented the slow pace of work on the project since October last year after the Federal Government paid the sum of N33 billion to the contractors.
RCC workers and equipment returned to site last and began to replace the clay laden sand on the road with sharp river sand. The contractor has also progressed work on one side of the road from Trailer Park to Refinery Junction, excavating the old asphalt and its base. It has been replacing the excavated earth with stones and sharp sand.
Demolition of obstructing structures has also been going on. Building owners could be seen de-roofing their houses and removing valuable items like iron rods and metal frames when National Point visited the project site.
Mr. Goodness Abbey, whose home was affected by the road project confirmed that compensation for the affected houses had been paid. He said though the compensation was not good enough, the family had accepted it in the overriding interest of the public project and was moving out of the way of the bulldozers.
The reconstruction of the 18 kilometres section of the Eleme axis of the East-West road started last year after many years of lamentations and agitations by road users and other stakeholders over the terrible state of the road.