FERMA commences intensive rehabilitation works on Keffi-Abuja road

By Stanley Onyekwere

The Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA at the weekend commenced intensive rehabilitation works on the ever- busy Abuja-Keffi dual carriageway, which has in recent weeks witnessed traffic gridlock due to failures in some portions of the road.
The areas currently being worked on include; the portion between the popular Sharp Corner at Mararaba to the Chris Park junction, the Building material area down to Checking Point and other critical areas of the road.
The FERMA team led by the Federal Road Maintenance Engineer in charge of the FCT, Engr. Ambrose Omame worked throughout the nights over the weekend.
According to Omame, it would be thoughtless to carry out road rehabilitation works during day time, noting that such development will further compound the traffic gridlock in the area.
One of the major works done by FERMA was the distilling of the drainages which were totally blocked as a result of excessive dumping of refuse by residents of the area.
The waste evacuated from the drainage includes plastic bottles and bags as well as other non-existent bio-degradable items used for domestic purposes.
Our correspondent reports that at a stretch of less than 50 meters on the the road median along the Mararaba Sharp Corner area alone, over four trucks load of household wastes were evacuated from the blocked drainage.
Omame, who led a team of engineers and other staff of FERMA to repair failed portions of the road network said the decision to work at night was parts of decisions taken by the Managing Director of FERMA , Engr. Nurudeen Adulraharaman Rafindadi who according to him is relentless in ensuring that roads across the federation are motorable at times.
He noted that FERMA would continue to fix failed portions on the Abuja-Keffi road until when the Federal Ministry of Works carry out the planned holistic expansion of the already congested dual carriageway.
While commending the Guards Brigade unit of the Nigerian Army for providing them with adequate security at night and the men of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) for controlling traffic flow, he noted that the rehabilitation and maintenance work will likely last for about one month due to some peculiar challenges on the road .
On his part, the Nyanya Unit Commander of the FRSC, Mr. Arinze Agu, who also joined the FERMA team with his men to ensure free flow of traffic at night faulted the attitudes of motorists who drive on the road shoulders and overload their vehicles
It could be recalled tha the FCT FERMA team had earlier worked on a very bad portion on the slope, just between Mogadishu barracks flyover and and Kugbo community.