Some residents of Enugu State have called on the Federal Government (FG) to urgently repair the collapsed flyover bridge on Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway to ease traffic congestion and damage to internal roads within the state capital.
Pressure from articulated vehicles and trucks have resulted in the collapse.
Since the collapse, there have been damage to internal roads within Enugu metropolis.
Traffic was diverted to the metropolis to ensure continued movement of vehicles, especially inter-states vehicles using the Expressway to get to their destinations across the country.
A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent, who monitored the situation of internal roads within the diversion areas, observed that about six roads are already failing and have serious asphalt cracks within the metropolis barely a month after the collapse.
The affected roads included: Independence Avenue, Chime Avenue in New Haven, Rangers Avenue, Nza Street, Ezilo Street and upper Presidential Road all in Independence Layout.
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Speaking to NAN, an Enugu-based civil engineer, Onyekachi Duru, said that the deteriorating roads were due to the recent heavy weight and pressure on them by the articulated vehicles and trucks using the routes.
Duru noted that the internal roads were not constructed with the mindset that they would carry heavy trucks and articulated vehicles, but rather lighter vehicles.
“Again, you can see the tear in the asphalts, which anyone can notice, is due to pressure and extensive run-off on the road by heavy vehicles and their weight tonnes daily during the intense heat in the afternoon.
“During the afternoon heat, the asphalt expands or melts and becomes elastic and the excess weight of these heavy duty vehicles breaks that elasticity and causes the crack and folding you notice on the road.
“Another is that some points on the roads, where the soil is not together or micro/macro organisms must have burrowed-in have created a visible cave-in after the activities of these heavy vehicles on them,” he said.
According to him, the best solution is for the collapsed bridge to be fixed fast so that the articulated and heavy vehicles can use the major expressway originally designed for their passage.
“This will definitely save the internal roads within Enugu as well as save the state billions of naira to fix roads being damaged by these heavy vehicles,” he said.
A resident, Anthony Ukwu, noted that state and Federal Governments needed to move fast, adding: “If things are allowed to continue in the next four or six months, the majority of roads within the Independence axis of Enugu would fail.
Ukwu urged the state government to put pressure on the Federal Government to commence reconstruction work on the collapsed bridge.
“If the state government does not act fast, the state and her people will bear the brunt soon,” he said.
Sunday Akpan, a commercial tricycle operator within the Independence axis of Enugu, said that commercial transporters would soon find it hard to operate in Enugu due to daily wear-and-tear on their vehicles and tricycles.
“Notwithstanding how bad or rough the roads may be, these big vehicles and trucks pass it at ease due to their big tyres and leaving tricycles to suffer the damage,” Akpan said.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, during his visit to the collapsed flyover, promised that work would resume on the bridge immediately.
When NAN correspondent visited the site of the collapsed bridge, there was no sign that work would commence soon on it.
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