The China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) has been given a 14-day termination notice by the minister of works, Dave Umahi, for what he described as subpar construction and the near-demise of the Port Harcourt-Aba Road.
Umahi, who gave the directive during a tour of the federal road projects in Rivers State, expressed frustration with the 43-kilometer dual carriageway’s deterioration.
Despite receiving numerous ministry warnings, he accused the construction company of breaking engineering standards.
The Minister lamented that the project, which the previous administration inherited, has turned into a source of embarrassment while standing on a clearly distressed section of the road.
We are at the ripe for the CCECC-constructed Port Harcourt-bound Aba route to be completely destroyed.
He said, “We’ve been putting in money to finish one carriageway, and this job was inherited.”
Umahi claims that the ministry and CCECC had reached a deal to use asphalt on the main carriageway and concrete on the shoulders for added durability.
He claimed that the company had already failed on sections that had been completed two years ago by laying binder courses over protracted stretches without finishing the shoulders or applying the final wear coat, a ruse that had already led to errors.
Umahi announced that the ministry would now de-scope the Port Harcourt-bound section from CCECC’s contract and re-assign it to qualified indigenous contractors capable of producing high-quality work after what he described as more than 20 official warnings.
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He vowed that CCECC must either fix the errors at their own expense or risk shut down all of its ongoing projects in Nigeria.
“I will direct the Ministry to scout for very competent indigenous contractors to handle the Port Harcourt-bound lane,” Mahahi said. CCECC will be subject to sanctions, including the termination of all of their contracts nationwide, if they do not mill out the defective binder and replace it.
The Minister also made it known that all correspondence exchanged with CCECC would be made public to demonstrate transparency and safeguard public funds, while stating that the government would not tolerate any form of sabotage against Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s infrastructure renewal agenda.
Source: Channels TV
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