From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, Ebonyi State (FERMA) has rehabilitated more portions of failed Abakaliki-Enugu highway, which became death trap for motorists and other road users.
Federal Roads Maintenance Engineer of the agency, Ebonyi State Field Office, Akinyemi Ojo, noted that some of the fixed roads were constructed with concrete.
He blamed road failures on human activities and urged people to avoid disposing dirts on drainages, which can cause flood and destroy the roads.
“We discovered that some concrete roads failed and from investigation, we discovered that it was from the foundation. So, after cutting and scooping out, we actually confirmed that that actually happened because water was rushing out from under the ground that shows that the ground level water is up and they didn’t take care of that before the construction. That was what caused the failure and that is what we are addressing and correcting.
“There is a washout at km 8.700 along this Abakaliki/Enugu road, that one has been corrected, we have fixed it and it is motorable. When that one happened, our attention was called by the Civil Defense and Department of State Services to that location which they wrote to our agency and immediate action was taken and we are able to rectify that.
“There is another one in that same location, the approach of the bridge. Some months back, it was a death trap for motorists but to the glory of God, we have been able to arrest that; we have fixed it properly and it is working. There is another bridge that is accident-prone. Our attention too was called to it by the DSS at the front of FETHA 2 in Abakaliki here and we have corrected that. We have opened it for traffic.
“Some of the failures are as a result of human activities. Like that at FETHA we worked on, people were pouring garbage on one side of the road, and waste inside the drain and they were not clearing the thing. Once the drain is silted up, definitely, it will cause the flood to take place on the carriageways and once there is too much of water on the carriageways, asphalt will fail.
“Motorists should take caution and people of the community too should take caution and manage the road well. It is not everything that the government will do for us. We have our own little part to play by making sure that we are not pouring garbage inside the drain,” he stated.