The federal government has tasked Julius Berger to accelerate the delivery of some critical intervention projects across the country especially the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano highway project.
This is just as the federal government has promised N20 billion monthly payment to the contractor to ensure the project is delivered within 14 months.
Minister of Works, Sen. Nweze David Umahi, gave the charge during a meeting with the management of Julius Berger Plc at the Ministry of Works in Abuja on Tuesday.
He reiterated the firmness of the ministry on issues of price control, commitment of contractors to project execution, value for money, and uniform pricing location by location.
Umahi in a statement by his special adviser on Media, Barr. Orji Uchenna Orji described as unacceptable conditions of some of the inherited and new projects of all ongoing federal roads awarded to Julius Berger Plc.
The projects according to the minister were being delayed due to issues of price differentials or lack of effective funding.
He listed the projects affected to include: the 82km by 2 dualization of section of Abuja-Kaduna- Zaria- Kano Highway currently handled by Julius Berger; phase 2 of Lagos-Ibadan expressway, whose pavement elements had been changed from asphalt to concrete; section 2A bypass at the 2nd Niger Bridge whose pavement element was changed to concrete; the Bodo-bonny road funded by NLNG Tax Credit; the under deck structural works at 3rd Mainland bridge, Iddo bridge and Carter Bridge.
The minister urged the contractor to be open to a mutually agreed modality for milestone execution and funding of the projects at reviewed rates as may be agreed upon and approved by Federal Executive Council.
He said, “Our job is to develop this mechanism based on FEC directives, and engage with the Honourable Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, and finally we take our recommendations back to Mr. President, and of course FEC for consideration.”
Umahi commended Berger on quality of work done on the section of Abuja-Kaduna- Zaria-Kano road agreed to be handled by Julius Berger Plc.
He however, directed the contractor to stick to one carriageway at a time within the scope.
He further directed the contractor to within three weeks, fill the two carriageways with stone base and level it to alleviate the sufferings of road users.
He said, “We agreed that this project, within their own corridor, will last for 14 months. Project execution should be deployed in four sections, and we’ll be paying Berger ₦20 billion every month to get the job completed”.
On the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, phase 2, he said the ministry had no choice but to determine the contract and ask Bureau of Public Procurement for No Objection for selective tendering.
He recalled, “We changed the elements of the pavement from asphalt to concrete, and the total cost we came up with based on prevailing cost is ₦153 billion. But they are offering ₦258 billion. Since we’ve been on this since September 2023, we have no choice but to determine this contract. And then we ask BPP for No Objection for selective tendering, whereby we will be sending our own advice of ₦153 billion to BPP, and we send their own of ₦258 billion to BPP, and then we invite other contractors to also bid. This we will conclude within the next one month so that we can get that job concluded.’’
Speaking on the Second Niger Bridge Bypass handled by Julius Berger Plc, he said, “One of the bypasses, which is 17.27 kilometres by two on asphalt, was awarded to Julius Berger. We changed the pavement elements to concrete and the cost that we came up with was ₦133 billion. Berger almost gave us more than twice our cost, which is ₦279 billion. We have disagreed with this cost at the time of negotiation since September 2023. We’ve also decided to get the project back to BPP and invite more contractors to bid because this is public fund”.
The minister speaking on the Bodo-Bonny project funded by NLNG Tax Credit, expressed concerns that Julius Berger Plc, though had mobilized back to site after additional cost of N80 billon was approved for the work, but reports showed that their pace of work was slow.
He was further expressed worry that the contractor came up with a longer timeline of 16 months within which to deliver the project against the December 2024 deadline proposed by the ministry.
He commended the contractor handling the under-deck structural works at the 3rd Mainland Bridge, Iddo Bridge, and Carter Bridge in Lagos State for doing fantastic work.
Speaking on the Odukpani road in Cross River State, Umahi said, “We have got approval from Federal Executive Council to increase their project by ₦36 billion, thereby raising the project cost from ₦54 billion to ₦90 billion. This was just approved a few days ago. We want to know their response on that. Yes, we have agreed to change the pavement to concrete, and our position is that they have to engage on one carriageway when we agree on this. It is when we agree on all these ones where we do not have complete funding that we can enter into the second phase of what FEC directed, and that is to discuss the mechanism”.
In his remarks, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Yakubu Adam Kofarmata, stated that some of the ongoing road projects handled by contractors required emergency works to alleviate the sufferings of road users and assured that all the supervising engineers would be on their toes to ensure that the ministry’s policy of ‘Operation Free our Roads’ was carried out by all the contractors handling federal government roads nationwide.
On the section of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Highway handled by Julius Berger Plc, he said, “We have requested this emergency work due to the flow of information and the requests that we’ve been getting from Nigerians plying Abuja to Kano, more especially the Abuja to Kaduna road, where a number of big craters have been created on that road.”
