Obinna Odogwu, Abakaliki
Ebonyi State government has commenced construction work on a 150-metre road leading to the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Gate of Heaven Parish, at the Nkaliki area of Abakaliki, the state capital.
The road which is impassable as it is usually very slippery whenever it rained, Sunday Sun gathered, has caused the people of the area untold hardship. It got the governor’s attention when he attended a wedding in the church about two weeks ago.
Flagging off the road project officially yesterday, the state Governor, Chief David Umahi, represented by his Senior Special Assistant on Infrastructural Maintenance, Chief Ali Odefa, said that the road would gulp the sum of N14.4million with drainages and streetlights on it.
He said that it is expected to be completed in the next three weeks as work has already commenced on the road project.
This is even as he disclosed that the state government has commenced patching up potholes on all the internal roads across the state capital.
Odefa said: “The cost of the project is N14.4 million and it is 6-metre by 6 inches concrete road. The road was very bad and the way they built houses around the area made it very prone to flooding.
“In the rainy season, it is not passable but we have filled all those places and we are introducing culverts in some portion of the road so that there will be easy flow of water in the drainages.
“Government is embarking on the zero pothole programme and this zero pothole is not just something that will just happen overnight. We are taking them one after the others. We have divided Abakaliki into 14 DISCOs and each DISCO has its own streets.
“Most of the internal roads done by the previous administration in the state have failed. So, we have started to attend to them one after the other, places where we have done concrete roads are safe. The places where there are asphalted roads in the past, even when you recoat them, the failures start underground.
“So, how this zero pothole programme was designed is that wherever we notice that pothole, we mark that pothole and dig and scavenge that place to a depth of 8 inches, we put BRC MM 5 inches thickness and them we pour grade 40 concrete and then that portion can never fail anymore.
“So, when we finish putting all these concrete amendments in place, we can now overlay them again with asphalts and then they will stand the test of time”, he stated.
Pastor of the church, Amari Omaka (SAN), said that the road was in a very pitiable state and that the church members found it very difficult to access the church whenever it rains and therefore commended Umahi for coming to their aid.