Challenges in Highway Road Construction in Nigeria Essay

Dissertation Proposal

Challenges in Highway Road Construction in Nigeria.

Research Questions:

• Why is at that place a high figure of main road roads in hapless conditions particularly in the eastern portion of the state?
• Why is at that place abandoned main road roads across Nigeria despite immense investings in main road building?
• Why this there a hapless care civilization of roads across the state?

Therefore, this proposed thesis would take to turn to this spread in cognition by challenges confronting the main road route building, concentrating more on the supervising of main road roads of autochthonal building companies.

Purpose

To reexamine and place the challenges confronting the building of main road roads in Nigeria and to supply relevant recommendations for understating these jobs.

The aims of this research proposal are:

• To clearly place the challenges confronting main road building in Nigeria through literature reappraisal.
• To carry on a questionnaire study and interview of professional organic structures and applied scientists and obtain their perceptual experiences on main road building challenges in Nigeria ( peculiarly professionals with 30years and over of experience ) .
• Analysis of the study informations.
• To urge possible alterations in the supervising of main road building in Nigeria.

Background Introduction

Nigeria is the largest state in Africa in footings of size and population of 174 million with land mass of 923,768 sq. kilometer with diverse cultural and civilizations. It has 36 provinces with the Federal capital at Abuja with commercial provinces at Kano, Lagos, and Port Harcourt stand foring the northern, southern and eastern parts of the state.

The Construction industry contributes about 7 % of the GDP ( Gross Domestic Product ) in Nigeria yearly and the GDP per capital was about $ 2,800 in 2013 and is made up of little, medium and big graduated table companies. It is dominated by foreign companies commanding approximately 95 % of the building works across the state with top building companies viz. Julius Berger, Dantana & A ; Sowoe, Borini Prono, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, etc.

OVERVIEW OF HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION IN NIGERIA

Nigeria has the largest route web in West Africa with a sum of over 193,000km length which is by and large funded and managed by authorities.

Road transit is the major agencies of motion in Nigeria and it accounts for approximately 90 % of motion of goods and services ( Akpogomeh, 2002 ) . In footings of graduated table and value, the conveyance substructure sector is dominated by the roads and Bridgess which make up approximately 17.2 % of the entire building industry in 2014. However less than 20 % of the route web is paved. With the government’s committedness to development, big investings in main road roads has been awarded across the state and the sector is expected to turn.

The route web in the South and eastern portion of the state are denser than the other parts owing to the high population densenesss in the countries ( Ubogu et al, 2011 ) . For illustration, the population in Lagos is about 6 million which was the former capital province and is the commercial and production portion of the state and hence the volume of use of the main road roads to and fro Lagos is rather high. The entire main road roads are individually owned with the duty for building, care, and rehabilitation.The Federal roads are about 17 % , State owned roads 16 % , rural and Local Government Areas ( LGAs ) about 67 % . The support of the building of the main road roads comes from the allotment of budget and besides grosss from extra rough oil gross revenues. Besides, some provinces generate financess through private partnering which is used in Lagos States.

However, merely approximately 27 % of Federal roads are reported to be in good status, of which a major cause is likely to be the instability of the state during the military government, which subsequently became civilian regulation since 1999. Annual loss to the economic system is estimated in the part of N175b ( N75b due to decrease in plus value ; N88b due to increased vehicle runing cost ; N12b due to increased bend about and increased travel clip ) . Due to the high cost of building of main road roads particularly in the southern portion of the state characterized with hapless dirts, high cost of labor, the Federal authorities relies to a great extent on international assistance particularly from China and the World Bank. With the World Bank, funding eroding undertakings across the state worth over $ 500 million.

In October 2012, in the Northern portion, Kaduna State approved $ 176million for 31 rural and township roads, and the World Trade Organization ( WTO ) agreed a loan of $ 170million for roads as portion of the Nigeria Agriculture Transformation Agenda ( NATA ) , which targets rural development. Besides, a 128km route contract in Zamafara province worth $ 43.47million was awarded in 2013.

Over in western portion of Nigeria November 2012, in one of the biggest route developments, Ogun province awarded four companies a portion of $ 568million for route contracts. Borini Prono, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation ( CCECC ) , Hi Tech and PW Construction will finish eight new roads by 2014, with a 2nd stage of building worth over $ 250 million.

Besides, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is one of the major route undertakings under development. The Infrastructure Bank Plc. is to raise NGN117bn for the Reconstruction of the 127km route.

Over in the Middle portion of Nigeria, Delta where the state gets its rough oil from, a route building contract worth $ 1.07 billion has been awarded to China Railway Construction in Nigeria. The Ministry of Delta Affairs of Nigeria awarded the bundle of plants for Section V of the A121 East-West main road to China Civil Engineering Construction, a division of China Railway Construction with a 5 old ages continuance to link the chief North-South main roads. ITS path tallies from the A1 main road at Shagamu in Ogun State to the A2 main road at Benin City in Edo State.

More late, in 2014, the authoritiess of the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS ) of which Nigeria is strong member approved a $ 50million six double lane route undertakings to associate Lagos, Abidjan and Dakar together cutting across Benin, Togo and Ghana. Besides, the African Development Bank is expected to supply $ 16million for the building and rehabilitation of roads across Africa associating the major metropoliss.

In general, the present status of the Nigerian roads require pressing attending, in footings of rehabilitation and had a negative consequence on the cost of production, drawn-out travel clip and criterion of life ( ( Ubogu et al, 2011 ) . For illustration, going from Benin to Lagos usually should take 5hours, but due to the bad route, the journey takes 8hours.

Table 1.0 demoing main road building undertakings, value in US dollars, capacity, contractors and position.

NA-Not Available

Source- Nigeria Infrastructure Report 2014 ( BMI cardinal Projects Database )

Supervision IN HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION IN NIGERIA

In Nigeria, supervising of main road building is done by adviser applied scientists and in-between degree supervisors with few main road field experience, for illustration in the building of say 10km rehabilitation in rural countries. A major factor affect supervising of main road undertakings is low cognition of main road design and building, apprehension and reading of drawings, which is impossible to oversee what 1s does non hold cognition of.

Some procedures in main road building requires proper oversing such as the route alliance, dirt trials, laying of asphalts or macadam as the instance possibly. Besides, the supervising should affect checking of quality of the stuff used for building such as sand, laterite in conformity with the specifications in the main road drawings.

In the awarding of main road roads contracts, the building and supervising are awarded individually with competitory commands. For illustration, Julius Berger, a foreign based company which specializes in main road building which major plants in Abuja metropolis capital. The major issue is that for some building works supervising contracts are awarded based on connexion alternatively of existent cognition of the supervising and hence there are no cheques. But in general, most of the building of main road roads by the foreign companies have stood the trial of clip. The instance is non the same for place based building companies who have limited resources and proficient cognition are awarded immense main road route contracts, with place based advisers oversing.

Another issue is that the measure of the advisers oversing the building is frequently times added to the full contract and hence duty rests in the custodies of the contractors and therefore the advisers are frequently times forced to cut corners and salvage costs such as non seting a occupant applied scientist to oversee day-to-day and give studies.

LOW KNOWLEDGE BASE.

A major job confronting the main road building is the deficiency of cognition transition from the old and experient applied scientists to the immature, inexperient applied scientists. Often times, due to the deficiency of handiness of supervising plants, most consulting houses do non use and develop applied scientists, prosecuting them in design and reading of drawings on site. Often times, when confer withing houses get work, they employ contract based applied scientists to supervision go forthing a immense spread of cognition transition to the younger applied scientists and hence in Nigeria, most alumnus Engineers have small or no building experience.

Besides there is a deficiency of modern method of route building particularly the place based building companies and therefore many main road undertakings, such as main roads and Bridgess, do non run into cost and clip public presentation demands.

There is a hapless care civilization of main road roads across the state and with the immense investings in main road building, the mean Nigerian lacks care civilization. In some metropoliss across the state, some of the main roads are constructed without the side drains and in some other instances merely one side of the drains are constructed, which subsequently causes failure of the roads. Besides, litters can be seen in some of the main road roads particularly in the eastern and western parts of the state which is a really serious issue which should be addressed. In the rural countries, most of the side drains are wholly blocked particularly in the eastern portion which is prone to erodings.

Another major issue within the main road building in Nigeria is the failure of the Federal Government in paying contractors. For illustration, in the Reconstruction of the 125km Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which was re-awarded to Julius Berger and R.C.C in which the building is due to get down due deficiency of payment by the authorities which is one of the grounds for abandoned main road undertakings across the state.

Nigeria still uses the traditional catching attack in which procurance is done through advertizement and command processes has failed in public presentation in both the quality of building and the direction of the main roads, in many developed states following performance-based contract in route building and care.

The Federal Ministry of Works which has subdivisions across the 36 provinces with caput office in Abuja the capital is responsible for all the federal main roads building which involves planning, design, building, and rehabilitation. It is responsible for presenting for major main road contracts across the state. It besides supervises and proctors building and care of the federal roads.

In footings of quality, the pick of stuffs used, methodological analysis and supervising are key in bettering the quality and life span roads. In this respect, ( Arumala 1987 ; and Akpododje 1986 ) investigated how the design criterions, hapless supervising and the failure of main roads and found little or no grounds back uping it.

Besides, surveies on route failure caused by usage of sub-standard stuffs and cognition on the geotechnical belongingss of the dirts in which the roads are built ( Ibrahim 1980 ; and Ola 1978 ) . For illustration, the cost of route building in the South and eastern portion of the state is higher than that in the northern portion chiefly on the bad conditions of the dirt, high cost of labor and handiness of building stuffs.

The British codification of Highway pattern ( BS codifications ) are still used in Nigeria for both in main road building and edifices as it was a former settlement of the Britain and presently a member of the Common Wealth.

The Federal ministry besides supervises the activities of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency ( FERMA ) which is responsible for carryout care works on the federal and province main roads across the state.

Research Method

My proposed research method would be a qualitative research ( questionnaire and interview study ) . Interview study for adviser applied scientists who have over 30 years’ experience in main road building and questionnaire study for contractors in main road building in Nigeria. The ground being that the research requires an in deepness position and in footings of Numberss there are few applied scientists with over 30 years’ experience I can run into.

The construction of the interview would be semi structured to let for flexibleness for 3 adviser applied scientists home based average scale houses.

Possible Problems & A ; Potential Solutions

Possible restrictions to my proposed survey is the foremost the clip direction and a timetable has been drafted as shown below. Besides the reactivity of the interview study could be disputing happening professional applied scientists and advisers with over 30 years’ experience. The research limited to place based building companies and professionals.

Decision

Hopefully, at the terminal of research work, solutions could be recommended in the main road building industry in Nigeria particularly in the supervising country which would assist in future planning of undertakings.

Mentions

Alaba Adetola, et.al ( 2011 ) A critical assessment of route conveyance substructure direction in Nigeria International council for research and invention CIB, pp.77-95.

Abdulkareem, Y. and Adeoti, K. ( 2003 ) , Road care and National Development available at unilorin.edu.ng

Adams, O. ( 1995 ) Indigenous Contractors’ Perceptions of the restraints on Contractors Performance and Development Programmes required in Nigeria. Habitat International, 19 ( 4 ) , pp.599-613.

Adetola, A. ( 2011 ) A critical assessment of route conveyance substructure direction in Nigeria. International council for research and invention CIB, pp.77-95.

Aibinu, A. and Jagboro, G. ( 2002 ) The effects of Construction Industry, international Journal of Project Management. 20 ( 8 ) , pp.593-599.

Nigerian Infrastructure study, 2013 ; 2014. ( 2014 ) .

A.E Okezie ( 2013 ) A instance for Performance based route care in Nigeria available at www.nseph.org

Odeh, A. and Battaineh, H. ( 2002 ) Causes of building holds: traditional contracts. International Journals of Project Management, 20, pp.67-73.

Okigbo, N. ( 2012 ) Causes of Highway failures in Nigeria. International Journal for Engineering Science and Technology, 4 ( 11 ) .