Indications emerged on Monday that the Ado-Iworoko-Ifaki Road, which was started in December 2007, would finally be completed and made accessible to commuters by the end of March.
Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, confirmed this while speaking with journalists shortly after inspecting some of the ongoing road projects across the state, including Ado-Iworoko-Ifaki Road on Monday.
The dualised road was just at about 40 per cent completion level when Fayemi assumed office in October 2010.
The governor said once the rocks which have caused a major setback for construction work on the road are blasted and the remaining bridge at Ilokun completed this week, there are possibilities that the contractor handling the project would meet the March deadline that he promised government.
Fayemi said: “We get weekly report on the road, the consultant gives me report regularly and I am on the neck of the contractor. They are now really working to meet the deadline; the major problems are the rocks to be blasted. On Ifaki to Iworoko, there are two major spots and they have been blasted.
“On Ori Apata/ School of Nursing area, the bulk of the rock has been blasted but they still have a bit of it to be blasted and then the one at Adehun here which has not been touched at all. I expect that by the time they do that, the project manager is telling me end of March. I will see if they can finish the work by the end of March.”
Speaking on other road projects that were flagged off in November last year, Fayemi said virtually all the contractors were on site but noted that the contractors needed to quickly put in place the critical parts of the construction works before the raining season, stressing that asphalting could be done even during the raining season.
He added that while some of the contractors have reached the stage of earth works and drains, others are still clearing the roads but warned that any contractor who was not ready to work faster enough to beat the rains and deliver as scheduled may have his contract revoked.
He said: “Most professional contractors can still do asphalt over-lay when the rains are on. The one that is difficult are the drains and that is why we are really putting significant pressure on the contractors that are on the road to do the work in a manner that we will be satisfied with. Many of them are still in line with the timing. For most of the contracts, they have a deadline of October 2012. So it is reasonable to expect that they would finish all the roads that we have on by then.”