Leadership (Abuja)
Ofem Uket
18 October 2007
Abuja — The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), has commenced the production of cold asphalt for pot-hole patches, to remain in use for about a year before solidity.
Contrary to the conventional asphalt that could only be used within 24 hours, the new cold asphalt introduced by the agency is aimed at cutting down the cost of road maintenance, as well as reduce waste in the event that the produced asphalt could not be exausted in a specific project.
The head of research and development FERMA, T. B. Eyo, disclosed that the agency was concerned about how best and cost effective federal roads could be maintained across the country, and kept motorable all year round.
He said the cold asphalt was presently centrally produced in Abuja and distributed to the states for repair work, while efforts was being made to train all the chief maintenance engineers in the states on how to produce the new product.
Accordingly, the agency has ordered for a large quantity of the chemicals in the mass production of cold asphalt to meet the demand for the product which was expected to be distributed across the 36 states of the federation, including FCT.
Cold asphalt is among the new products of road maintenance components invented by the research and development unit of FERMA within a space of one year, to improve on the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of the federal highways.
Eyo disclosed that gradually, the old methods of road maintenance would be faced out, to give room for modern technology that would enhance the capacity of the agency and that of construction companies to tackle the deplorable state of the Nigerian roads.
The cold asphalt could be used as a road mat for pot-hole patches, and some emergency repair work on the highways, including erosion wash-out and critical failed sections of the roads.
However, the agency is doing everything within its resources to raise the standard of road work, and intensive maintenace to address the poor state of federal roads.
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