…Launches zero porthole campaign
By Angela Nwaeze Mbaocha
The government of Ebonyi State has declared war on portholes along the highways and internal roads in Abakaliki.
Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Infrastructure Maintenance, Hon. Ali Odefa announced the flag off on August 17, 2019.
Odefa while addressing congregants of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Ebonyi Province 2, Redemption Avenue, opposite Ebonyi Broadcasting Cooperation, Nkaliki Road, during the flag off 150meters road leading to the church, noted that his office has already marked the portholes to be repaired.
He reiterated that before the end of this administration there will be no porthole on Ebonyi roads, adding that anywhere a road fails, after the repairs it will last for forty years and noting will happen to it.
Odefa pointed out that the roads to be repaired include those constructed by the previous administration.
“Government is embarking on zero porthole programme and this zero porthole programme is not what will happen overnight. We are taking them one after the other. In Abakaliki, we have divided into fourteen discos, each disco has its own streets, but I can tell you that you are right when you said most of the internal roads done by the previous administration have all basically failed. So we have started to attend to them one after the other.
“Places where we have done concrete roads now, they are safe, the places where there are asphalts in the past, even when you recoat them, the failure starts from underground.
“So what this zero porthole programme has designed is that wherever we noticed that porthole, we mark that place and excavate that place to a debt of 6 inches. We put BRC mesh 5mm thickness BRC wire mesh and then we pour grade 40 concretes, that way, that portion can never fail anymore. So when we finish putting all these concrete amendments in place, we can now overlay them again with asphalts and then they will stand the test of time’’, he narrated.
On his part, the pastor in charge of the Redeemed Church of God, Ebonyi Province 2, Professor Omaka, noted that the zero porthole programme is very important, adding that he believe, by the time the programme is completed, Ebonyi roads will not have problem again. “Because maintenance culture has come to Ebonyi State and I am happy about that” he stated.
