FG opens Mokwa-Jebba road to traffic

The Director of Highway Bridges and Design, Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Sogbesan Adetokunbo says diversion work following the collapse of a culvert on Mokwa-Jebba road has been completed.
Adetokumbo told the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday in Abuja that the road had been opened to traffic, adding that vehicular movement on the road had been restored.
He said the diversion was a palliative measure, adding that a permanent solution to the problem was being worked out by the Federal Government.
According to the director, the contractor and the Federal Controller of Works in Niger State are already working out estimate of a permanent solution to the problem.
He said: “As I speak to you, vehicles are going through the road; the contractor and the Federal Controller of Works in Niger State are presently working on the estimate of a permanent solution.”
The director said that the estimate would be determined by the hydrological design either by two or three cell box culverts.
He said the incident was a collapse of a single cell one metre by 1.5 metre box culvert and not a bridge as reported by some sections of the media.
Adetokunbo said there had been threat of the collapse by storm water before the Sunday morning rainfall that eroded the embankment and finally collapsed the box culvert.
He blamed the collapse of bridges and culverts in the country to increase in storm water resulting from massive construction of houses.
He said: “When there are no buildings, some of the rainfall goes into the soil but now that there are roofs, almost 90 per cent of rainwater finds their way to culverts and bridges.”
NAN recalls that the box culvert collapsed on Sunday morning after heavy rains resulting to heavy traffic on Mokwa-Jebba road.