The Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI) has confessed that they did not foresee or study the Mokwa bridge before its collapse.
The agency under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology said that entire bridges around the area are low line and with a kind of soil that is collapsible, which needs to be revisited.
Director General NBRRI, Prof. Danladi Matawal revealed that their has been the reoccurance of collapse of bridges both road, railway and culvert around Mouka area because of the terrain of the area.
Speaking in Abuja at the 2018 NBRRI International Conference, titled, ‘sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the Nigerian construction industry-challenges and the way forward.’
Prof. Matawal said, “Their has been the re-occurrence of collapse of bridges both road, railway and culvert around Mouka area because of the terrain, their was the need to adequately design to contain extreme flooding situations and I think that the design probably did not take proper consideration of this.
The agency under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology said that entire bridges around the area are low line and with a kind of soil that is collapsible, which needs to be revisited.
“I know we visited about a year ago, two, three collapsed sites in the same environment and it is unfortunate it has re-occurred this year. I think the entire bridges around the area which are low line and with a kind of soil that is collapsible needs to be revisited.
“I am not sure if it is the same bridge that collapsed but I think after the initial construction, we did not foresee the current collapse because we did not study that particular bridge.
“I believe that in building collapses we have reduced it to a minimal, their are no many building collapses but we will like to have zero tolerance for it, we will continue our work of intervention and secondly, we will step up our studies of existing bridges, maybe we will make some of these areas that look suspicious an area of attention and send a team to look at other bridges around Mokwa.”
Minister of Science and Technology Dr Ogbonnaya Onu said that his ministry will support NBRRI in embarking on necessary reasearches.
His words, “The ministry is determined to support NBRRI in its important task to embark on the necessary research and innovation needed to help build high quality and less expensive roads and houses in the country. This can be achieved through intensifying research on the use of locally available materials for the construction of both roads and houses in Nigeria.”
Culled from theNation.
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