The inability to tame shoddy jobs by road contractors has left tales of woe among motorists, who ply them and increased the budget for the works ministry. The recurring roads failure has been traced to lack of diligent geotechnical studies, old age, inadequate maintenance, poor design and construction, lack of drainage, use of poor and substandard materials, writes CORNELIUS ESSEN.

Following complaints about substandard roads by contractors, eggheads in the construction sector have cited inadequate public funding, inefficient procurement process, and lack of credible infrastructure development policy, as major reasons for failed road projects in the country.

They noted that road construction projects have suffered serious setbacks since the nation’s independence, causing untold hardship and economic stagnation for the citizenry in moving goods and services across the length and breadth of the country. They said the government did not set priorities for the road system right from the onset, and its dearth has stifled the productive capacity of the economy.

A study in the World Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology and Sciences, by Janet Yakubu, Sunday Daku, Rhoda Gusikit, Edwin Emmanuel and Mbushu Mangai of the Department of Geology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Jos, further traced the deplorable condition of roads to lack of careful and diligent geotechnical studies and inadequate knowledge of geology of the area.

They listed roads that have failed due to lack of proper geotechnical studies as Awotan-Akufo, Sagamu-Papalanto highway, Onitsha-Enugu Expressway and Akoko highway. Geotechnical studies provide information on the physical and mechanical properties of soil or rock around or brought to the construction site.

According to them, some roads have failed because of improper consideration of geology like the Sagamu -Benin expressway, Lagos- Ibadan expressway, Ibadan -Ife, Osogbo -Iwo expressway, Abakaliki area and Port Harcourt -Enugu expressway. Roads are founded on geologic earth materials and greatly controlled by geology. Other conditions such as old age, inadequate maintenance, poor design and construction, lack of drainage, use of poor and substandard materials, and heavy traffic has also led to road failures.

Despite the absence of definite statistics, most experts agree that the rate of road failure has increased in recent years. There is strong evidence to suggest that while geotechnical processes are becoming better controlled and more reliable, failures of small, medium and big scale geotechnical works such as roads continue to arise with embarrassing frequency in the country.

To minimise road failures, they suggested that the foundations, walls, and top slab are rigidly tied together by high-tensile reinforced steel to ensure the structure’s firmness, so that floodwater does not penetrate the structure and carry it away.

“The materials for making concrete should meet all requirements in accordance with the recommended standard specifications for road and bridges, adding that the lack of provision for drainage systems on the highway leads to the reduction in the strength character of the soil as a result of ingress of water. The values of natural moisture contents of most failed roads indicate that the load bearing capacity of the soils increase rapidly as the moisture content values are lower than the plastic limit values.

“To avoid this, they advised the government to build drains to help keep soil dry. Resurfacing is not recommended, as it is only a short-term solution. This is because once a road deteriorates the subsurface follows and affects the new surface as well. Government should establish an anti-corruption team made up of men and women of integrity who will not request the contractors to “grease their palms” to become lenient in enforcing specification.

The study also recommended the establishment of Contractor’s Accountability Programme where genuine complaints are lodged against contractors for non-performance, poor performance, dereliction or repudiation. For continuous record of such offences, they said the contractor should be banned from bidding future contracts for a period of time, thus weeding out non performers and creating a contractor pool of proven performers.

The study also suggested that geotechnical properties of the constituent layers should also be given adequate attention to enable effective transmission of the load on the pavement to the subgrade without much deformation. “Further investigation should be carried out on the pavement, especially on the asphaltic concrete to assist future designs.

“Other possible solutions are strict adherence to geotechnical standards and design details, geotechnical stabilisation/replacement of poor soils, geological/ mineralogical stabilisation such as grouting of fault/ fractured subsurface and the use of lime and other stabilizers to correct expansive soils.”

Also, a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, Dr James Etim, said supervising agencies of government should pay attention to contractors and their collaborators. He stated that the government after refusing to engage the right professionals ends up compromising standards by using substandard materials, methods and workmanship to carry out the road contracts.

He argued that registered and licensed professional engineers should be used as contractors in the road construction process, while regulatory bodies should be carried along from inception to completion.

Etim regretted that the government hardly placed sanctions and disciplinary actions on those who violate quality and standards, thereby exposing innocent road users to danger, saying, “If these are implemented in the industry, it will serve as a deterrent to others.”

National Chairman, Nigerian Institution of Highway of Transportation Engineers, Saidu Hassan, said the major problem in the transportation sector is reforms. “Since 1991, Nigeria has tried to put it in place, which lends to Road Vision 2000 and we cannot say we have sub-standard roads in because they are designed to carry out certain Axle loads under spelt out specification,”

According to him, most roads in Abuja have lasted for years, and they have lifespan of 20 years and they need to be redesigned to last long since there are standard specifications for road construction as produced by the works ministry.

Lamenting failed projects, an engineer, Idris Yahaya called on government to work towards entrenching policy consistency to reduce the level of uncertainty in the system and encourage private entrepreneurs to participate in road development, adding “we need to put in place credible legal frameworks to ensure a favourable operating environment.

“This is meant to mitigate the risk of loss that may arise from government policy reversals. It will encourage private capital to flow towards infrastructure development. In wooing the private sector, the government at all levels must take initiatives to increase fiscal allocation to road projects.

“Without making road construction projects sustainable development programmes, it will be difficult to achieve the country’s road goal and without critical functional infrastructure in the right quantity, the economy will not grow and it will aggravate the present insecurity.”

The President, Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, Mr Kene Nzekwe, stated that the planning and procurement are important to curb road failures, saying, key professionals should be actively involved in all the road construction projects.

Nzekwe said: “Before embarking on these constructions, the Federal Government must count their cost because they are critical elements and once they are not articulated, then the project is bound to fail. The government should partner with institutions that would have delivered cost management.

“We observed that the government relegates some vital institutions to the background in infrastructure projects. In fact, they would not work, especially in price variations. We can provide that insight into cost management because we know more about long and short-term planning on how to have cost flow through the life cycle of the projects.

One of the contractors, who spoke with The Guardian, frowned at the way the government is handling award of road contracts, saying many factors come into play, such as political party patronage and favoritism, which cause failed roads.

According to him, the government must identify and trace some of the problems facing the sector and work towards salvaging the situation. We believe that what causes the issue of failed projects could be resolved by implementing strict building regulations and codes efficiently.

Meanwhile, Minister of Works, David Umahi, has reiterated his confidence in concrete pavement as answer to perennial road failures. According to him, concrete technology guarantees returns on investment, as well as ensures durability of roads.

He proposed a review of agreements, cost, and geotechnical evaluation among others of some of the existing contracts with a view to addressing the bottlenecks that have delayed or hindered execution of road projects across the country.

Umah, who met with directors of the ministry in Abuja, tasked the directors and contractors on integrity, identifying bad construction methods, poor supervision, and substandard materials as the foremost challenges of road contract execution in Nigeria.