The Federal Government has temporarily opened the Bodo–Bonny Road to facilitate smoother transportation for residents during the yuletide.
The President, who was represented by the Minister of Works, David Umahi, at the temporary opening of the road to ease transportation for residents in the communities along the route during the yuletide festivities, said the road had been a long journey with delays and challenges along the way, but through the patience and cooperation of the community, its construction finally reached this important milestone, and the contractor has continued to do a beautiful job here.
He hailed Julius Berger Nigeria Plc for the extent and quality of work done on the 35.7 km Bodo-Bonny Road project, noting that at the end of the job, Nigerians will be proud and feel safer to ply the legacy road.
On the reason for the temporary opening of the road, the President said, “I want to see a different festive mood there. The mood within the Bodo and the Kingdom of Bonny, and he directed me to come here with the National Assembly members, and of course, with the state government and the good people of Bodo and Bonny to temporarily open this route for the good use of Nigerians.”
The minister stressed that the opening was a temporary measure, disclosing that the permanent opening would be done by the president.
He said, “I know that the Niger Delta people are expecting the President next year, and he is going to come to commission this road for the convenience of the people, the safety of the people, the economic values of the people and Nigeria in general.
“The temporary opening of the road pending full completion would include operation on a daily basis from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and no night journeys on the road. Next is that there will be no heavy traffic on the road. The reason is that until we remove all the concrete obstacles, there will be no opportunity for large vehicles.
“The measure is to prevent breakdown of large vehicles on the road while still under construction, even as he tasked Julius Berger to mount roadblocks on the road so that no large vehicles will pass. No motorcycles or tricycles will be allowed on this route for now. And I have a big commendation for Julius Berger, especially the current team. If we had had them since, we wouldn’t have had all the fights we have had in so many places to the extent that this job here was threatened.
“Julius Berger, you have done very, very beautiful work. Many thanks to Engineer Tim Nippert and the Managing Director, Peer. They are very amenable to instructions, to discussions, to dialogue, and to details. And I think with the new Managing Director, Julius Berger can still relaunch in the face of construction.”
He, therefore, tasked the company with further work to do on the road ahead of the completion of the job, saying, “And I am tasking Julius Berger to plant trees, two sets of trees at 10 metres from the beginning to the end on both sides, and to put solar lights at 30 metres on both sides. It has to happen before the final completion of the project.”
The Project Manager, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Tim Nippert, who spoke earlier, took the audience on the long journey of the construction of the road to almost completion, adding that the cooperation his team is getting from the ministry and communities so far has helped a lot.
