Most Nigerian roads have expir£d – FERMA boss

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Nurudeen Rafindadi, has said that most roads in the country have expir£d.

Speaking at an event on Saturday in Kaduna, the CEO said that some of the highways in the country were built to last 15 to 20 years but are already over 50 years old.

“Most of the nation’s highways have expir£d. What we are doing now is managing our expired highways that were supposed to be built to last for 15 to 20 years and at most 25 years, but we have highways that were built over 50 years ago.

We need to devise a way of maintaining our roads, and it requires planning. Despite the noticeable benefits of highway development to the socioeconomic and political affluence of Nigeria, and its huge capital investment, highway transportation is still faced with numerous management and operational challenges in the country.

These challenges majorly stem from man-made and natural causes, which could be deficiencies in the supply and distribution of traffic; inadequate provision of infrastructural facilities, faulty carriageways, poorly designed or unavailable drainage systems, thereby, causing washing away of pavements, collapsed hydraulic structures, and noticeable surface failures.

“These challenges have significantly reduced the utility and performance of highways,” he said.