The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has rehabilitated failed sections of roads and restored an erosion-threatened bridge in Delta State as part of efforts to make federal roads safer and more motorable.
The agency said the interventions, including work on the 38-kilometre Kwale-Ebedei-Umutu Road and the Okumeshi Bridge section, were part of a broader commitment to keeping critical road links open, improving connectivity and facilitating the movement of people, goods and agricultural produce.
The development was disclosed on Wednesday during a routine monitoring visit by the FERMA management team to ongoing interventions in the state, led by the agency’s Special Assistant to the Managing Director, Engr. Dr Emeka Maduagwu.
On the Kwale-Ebedei-Umutu Road, FERMA’s Federal Roads Maintenance Engineer in Delta State, Kingsley Oshewe, said the agency had carried out direct-labour rehabilitation on sections between kilometres 21+000 and 24+000.
The work involved scarification, removal of failed pavement materials, filling with sharp sand and laterite, compaction, stone-base application, priming and asphalt surfacing. He said several sections had been successfully recovered.
The team also inspected the Okumeshi Bridge section at kilometre 15 between Ebedei and Umukuata communities in Ukwuani Local Government Area, where an embankment washout had threatened to cut off the carriageway.
FERMA responded by constructing a reinforced concrete retaining wall, backfilling the affected section with laterite and protecting the embankment with stone pitching against further erosion.
Oshewe said the intervention had restored the road to service and protected a critical link between communities.
He commended President Bola Tinubu for what he described as renewed commitment to road infrastructure, saying the administration’s investment and political will were giving the sector greater attention.
He also commended the Minister of Works, Senator Engr. David Nweze Umahi, and the Minister of State for Works, Bello Muhammad Goronyo, for their leadership, while praising FERMA Managing Director, Engr. Dr Chukwuemeka Agbasi, for providing focused leadership.
Maduagwu said FERMA would continue to monitor its interventions nationwide, stressing that critical road links must remain open and safe.
‘We are not where we want to be, but certainly we are not where we used to be. The journey is on and the direction is clear,’ he said.