Monrovia — Liberia's Minister of Public Works Ruth Coker Collins has blamed climate change for the slow pace of ongoing construction works on the Robertsfield Highway.
The highway leading to the country's only international airport has become infamous for the threats it poses to both passengers and pedestrians, especially at night.
On February 20, 2020, President George Weah broke grounds for the expansion and pavement of the Highway. The 45km links Monrovia to the airport.
The project, which is being implemented through a China-Liberia joint venture with East International Group and China Railways being the contractors, worth about US$95m.
Construction works have been described as sub-standards due to the failure of the Ministry of Public Works to supervise and thoroughly monitor the ongoing works.
As a result of the awful nature of the road, two people were admitted for treatment at a local hospital after a vehicle belonging to Deputy Transport Minister J. Darious Kollie plunged into a deep ditch along the perilous road over the weekend.
Speaking on the OK Morning Rush Show via telephone on Monday, Minister Collins regretted the current situation confronting passengers and commuters.
She justified that prior to the commencement of the project, the RIA Highway was a hotspot for accidents, claiming the lives of scores of citizens.
She said: "Not one person in Liberia the RIA road project does not concern. On a daily basis, we meet and create ideas on what to do further on the RIA road. In saying this, we regret the situation that we find ourselves in whereas climate change at some point affected the project. We regret that there were several other accidents which are not strange; even without a project, there were a lot of accidents on the RIA highway."
She added: "The fact that we have started the work and we've gone into the rainy season where we can't do more, the only thing we can do now is to do our bridges, culvert lines, our box culverts and do some backfilling."
Minister Collins pointed out that since last week, these construction works have been ongoing at the site.
Safety
The safety of commuters, travelers and others has been threatened as a result of the dilapidated state of the RIA road.
During the recent convocation and graduation exercises of the United Methodist University held in lower Margibi County, travelers did not meet up with their flight schedules due to traffic congestion caused by the poor nature of the road.
But according to Minister Collins, authorities of the ministry have been consistently meeting advancing ideas on what to do further for the completion of the project because of its significance.
She stressed that authorities will also ensure that "everything that we have put in place is implemented within this week because of safety."
Be careful
"In as much as we regret, we still caution people to take time. We are working along with the police and other governmental institutions to see whether we can divert the entire corridor to the 15 Gate."
Minister Collins emphasized that the RIA highway remains a major project for the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) led-government of President George Manneh Weah.
She said the ministry is "aware of everything that is happening" in relation to the current state of the road, adding that, the pavement will commence on a portion of the road this dry season and the ministry will remain engaged with all stakeholders, including the contractors and Consultant.
Taking issue with Mccritty
Adolphus Mccritty, seasoned civil engineer, former President of the Liberia Institute of Architects (LIA), and formerly the Liberia Chambers of Architects (LCA) recently alarmed over poor construction works being done on the road.
Mr. Adolphus McCrity, attributed the poor construction works to the lack of proper planning and feasibility studies.
"This is a lack of coordination, proper planning, and failure to do due diligence or feasibility studies before embarking on such a huge project. This is just being inconsiderate to the impact that this project will have on the environment and on the lives of people who live, work or travel on that particular highway. This is like giving somebody a job to do and the person goes about doing the job without even doing proper planning," he told FrontPageAfrica in an exclusive interview.
He observed that the ongoing installation of culvert system did not take into consideration nature, especially during the rainy season of Liberia.
He disclosed that efforts will be wasted and the road would elapse as a result of the current situation.
"These people are bothering nature and they will not win unless they work with Mother Nature. They knew the rain was going to come. Those culverts you see off the road and some are stopping one side of the road- in front of those culverts, you see a pot of water there-eventually what's going to happen is that, that water is going to shift over to the other side creating a soft spot in the road and the road is going to corrode and wash away and you have no way to travel back and forth the RIA route".
"Any culvert, whether it is a box or ICP culvert, you have to have an inner gauge out; it's like when you are trying to take gasoline from a container into your gas tank, why do you think you put the container with the gas at a higher elevation than where your gas tank is? It's because you want the gas to flow freely into your tank. But if you take a container and place it on the same level as your gas tank, it's not going to work. That's exactly what they are trying to do over there. They are putting culverts on the same level as the natural flow of water in that particular area. That's the reason why you see the water is swallowing up the culverts."
Mr. Mccritty emphasized that the current project will not be of benefit to Liberians and others if the substandard works that are being done remain.
He said it will be a total waste of taxpayers' monies if corrective measures are not taken at this early stage to correct the wrongs before the project progresses to another level.
"This is complete waste of time, money and energy because, when you are doing a road widening project on a major road like the RIA, the first thing you do is that, you create a detour that is separate from where you are working. That makes the normal flow of traffic to not be impacted with the work that you're doing".
Despite his vast qualifications and decades of experience, Minister Collins referred to Mr. Mccritty as a "plumber".
"Let me just speak about a guy who called himself engineer. It's too sad to see professional people impersonating. One guy who call himself Adolphus Mccritty-that guy is just a mere plumber. He knows nothing."
Professional RIA engineering?
Minister Collins justified that the current engineering works at the RIA project are "professional" though the safety issues are yet to be addressed.
"We know we got some issues with safety, but the engineering there is perfect and I can say this to anybody."
She admitted that there exist some level of misunderstanding with the Chinese contractors working on the project route on the "Monrovia side" in terms of interpretation. However, she fell short to disclose those issues.
"To be honest, road work is just road work. The fact that the detours are all on the road, we still remain focused on that road. So, there were no missteps along the way. There was some misunderstanding with the Monrovia side."
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She clarified that feasibility studies were carried out by a Korean Consultant who has been working along with the contractors.
Don't politicize the project
Meanwhile, Minister Collins has disclosed that the ministry remains focused towards the implementation of its robust plan to ensure the completion of roads in the communities and the opening of alleyways from now to the pending dry season.
"We are trying to avoid the too many politics; people trying to play with RIA road. We are engineers and we know what we are doing. I don't want people to politicize the RIA road. That's why this whole week, we will make sure to enforce the safety aspects of the road"
According to her, the usage of laterite rocks cannot be used to do the backfilling during this rainy season, adding that, "we have pushed the contractors to use the base floor."
The RIA project, which is being implemented through a China-Liberia joint venture with East International Group and China Railways being the contractors, worth about US$95m.
The framework calls for the project to be executed into three lots which include: 1) from Roberts International Airport to Junk River Bridge; 2) from Junk River Bridge to ELWA junction and; 3) the construction of the Junk River Bridge and the upgrading of the existing bridge.
The civil works with the actual construction of the road project is valued at US$80 million; design and supervision cost valued at US$7 million; and the management and resettlement action plan valued at US$7.5 million," Madam Kialain explained. "The length of the road is 45 km or 27.8 miles. The design of the road takes into consideration many factors, including population density, social activities, and the topography, which led the highway into different sections. The new road, when completed, will have a toll location, which is the Junk River Bridge."
