By Favour Nnabugwu

In its quest to develop standard infrastructure, the Federal Government has commenced the  reconstruction of all substandard bridges in the country.

The government which spoke through the Minister of Works, Mr Mike Onolememen, explained that all existing old, weak and narrow bridges will be replaced by new and standard bridges that can compete with the test of time.

Onolememen, an architect, who inspected the newly completed bridges on Ovoa-Agenebode bridge in Etsako East Local Government Area, Egbegio in South-Ibie, Etsako West Local Government Area and the Federal Polytechnic bridge, Auchi, all in Edo State penultimate weekend,  said that the new bridges are part of the transformation agenda of President Jonathan.

“The Federal Ministry of Works has for a while embarked on systemic replacement of substandard bridges across the country.

You can see that the existing old narrow bridge at Wepa river could only take one vehicle at a time and that is not befitting of an economy that is experiencing transformation and that is why we decided to replace substandard bridges with new concrete ones,” he said.

The Minister commended the contractor that handled the bridges for a job well done.  ”The contractor who carried out this project is Mothercat Nigeria limited which has given a good account of itself. That is how it should be because this project was completed on schedule and because on that we didn’t witness any cost overrun in the cost of the project,” he said.

On the Obajana-Auchi-Benin dual carriage road, the Minister said that the expansion of the road was aimed at reducing accidents on it.

“Many Nigerians drive with a lot of fear on this route because of its notoriety in terms of carnage and it is just a distance of about 3-4km. For us, the major objective of the government is to reduce fatality on our roads amongst all other things and reduce travel times as well.

As soon as the work is completed, the daily carnage will be a thing of the past because vehicle will move better on this new design,”he assured.

Onolememe said  compensation issues have been resolved with those affected on the dual carriage way road.

”We still have compensation issues on the sections where there no structures because of people’s farmlands, some of which were cultivated last year hence we still have to pay compensation on them,” he said.