16th April, 2012
The Lagos State government has set a minimum design specification for all road works to be carried out in the state, just as it vows to sanction contractors who do not meet with the required standard.
The state government met with all contractors handling its road works across the state to unveil to them the new design specification so that no one will deny having been told.
The meeting, held at the Adeyemi Bero Auditorium, Government Secretariat, Alausa in Ikeja, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, was chaired by the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr. Kadri Hamzat.
With the new specification, all rural roads to be constructed must be designed to last for 10 years; township roads, 15 years and highways, 20 years.
With the specification, all rural roads to be constructed must have an asphaltic concrete thickness of a minimum of 50mm; crushed stone base of 150mm; walkways on both sides of the roads with minimum width of 1.2m for areas with settlements; provision of service ducts and lane marking among others.
Township roads must have provision of soil-cement stabilization at sandy/swampy terrains of 150mm minimum thickness, crushed stone base of 150mm minimum thickness; construction of culverts, drains and outfall drains throughout the length of the road; 60mm minimum thickness binder asphaltic concrete, street lighting with generator and transformer, among others.
For highways, crushed stone base must be 200mm minimum thickness with construction of culverts, drains with outfall required; 100mm minimum thickness binder asphaltic concrete, provision of street lighting with generator and transformer, traffic safety measures, landscaping, median barrier, among others.
Addressing the contractors, Hamzat said henceforth contractors working with government must ensure that they send competent representatives to defend their proposals to avoid being disqualified.
He said with the new procurement law and agency in place, prominent people in the private sector had been included in the committee, adding that any contractor who does not send a competent representative to defend his or her company’s proposal may face disqualification.
“The essence of this meeting is to let you understand the ways we want to work. We have done a pamphlet; we will now put the names of the Managing Director and phone numbers on our website so that the public can call you to complain of your projects if it is not good. Before now, they only call us.
“Basically, we have specifications and anywhere we construct roads, such specifications must be met. As we expand the number of our roads, we want to improve on our monitoring. The community will also help us to monitor the roads you have built,” he said.
Hamzat warned that contractors who do not follow the new specifications would have their projects terminated and they would blacklisted by the government.