Concerns over construction of new Ogbomoso - Oyo road

Concerns over construction of new Ogbomoso – Oyo road

Ben GEORGE

With great joy did the people of Ogbomoso receive news of the award for the contract of the remaining stretch of the Ogbomoso – Oyo new highway last year by the federal government. Incidentally, the part falls within the Ogbomoso axis. But when the news of the contractor to handle the project was made public people became sceptical because JRB Construction Company Ltd is neither a big nor popular name in road construction. The part the company is handling was until then executed by the RCC (Reynolds Construction Company). However, JRB assured it would do a standard job allaying fears of the people just as it expressed confidence it would work to meet the 18-month timeframe to complete the project, which ends September this year.

An overhead bridge constructed by RCC at Federal Government College area, Ogbomoso

However, there have been concerns over the pace of work raising fears the September deadline might be a mirage. Also, the quality of work is a suspect. Residents along the route continue to express pessimism over the quality of the work. “The earthworks, the filling, the compacting, the manner these are being done is not convincing. It is haphazard, l fear we won’t have a durable road,” a resident along the road, Mr. Adekunle Adeleke told ogbomosoinsightonline.com.

Issues have also been raised regarding construction of overhead bridges, underpasses etc. “There are major roads that traverse the new highway whose intersections deserve overhead bridges for safety and ease of movement but from what we are seeing these crucial features won’t be added. Even the ones (overhead bridges) under construction by the RCC previously had been abandoned,” another resident lamented. “Areago High School road, Samaday area and so on are some of the areas deserving overhead bridges but these are not being put in place,” Mr. Akanji John observed.

So, concerns are ripe in terms of pace of work, quality of construction and deficit in other road features like overhead bridges. It is hoped the supervisory ministry and others would not default in their duty. We can’t afford to have a road that will pose danger to users and be prone to damages and thereby not durable.