The Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute has lamented the importation of sub-standard construction materials by contractors in the country.
According to The PUNCH, the Director General of NBRRI, Prof. Samson Duna, made the assertion when he hosted the leadership of the Nigerian Highway Institution and Transportation Engineers in Abuja.
Duna said the agency saddled with the responsibility of conducting technical research on suitable building and road construction design had observed this trend and called upon road contractors to desist from such act.
He said, “A very important reason why our roads are failing is that we are using inferior materials that were not tested. NBRRI has one of the best laboratories in the country. For now, there is no institution, and there is no research agency that has a laboratory for civil engineering equipment like that of NBRRI but these inferior materials get imported.
“NBRRI has one of the best laboratories in the country. For now, there is no institution; there is no research agency that can best talk about laboratories in civil engineering equipment like that of NBRRI.
“NBRRI has imported quite a lot of equipment within the past three years, so that is why we are extending a hand of fellowship with NHITE to partner and utilise this material to construct our roads and if standard materials are used, our road will be lasting, our road will be durable and it will have low maintenance as far as where the road is constructed.
The DG revealed that the institute had conducted a lot of research and studies on several roads like the Enugu-Port Harcourt Road, Bauchi-Gombe Road, and Bauchi Kano Road.
“We did a lot of road research and part of what we had discovered basically is that low-quality material was used during the construction. The process of construction was not adhered to. The quality of raw material used, even the lattice used for the road construction was not there. The level of compaction was not adhered to. The drainages have failed.
“And the other thing, how to conclude the issue of maintenance. Every structure needs to be maintained when there is a small portfolio on the road. If we don’t maintain it by tomorrow, it becomes two or three times and that’s part of the bedrock and so on.”
