…Constituted authority should consider constructing a bridge rather than culvert on this highway – Motorists
This is the third tragic experience Silas, not real name, with other travelers was hit on his way to Jos, plateau state from Yola, Adamawa State.
The Bauchi-Gombe federal highway, about 10 kilometers away from Bara village, Kirfi Local Government Area of Bauchi State is cut off leaving motorists stranded for unending hours that they would have to upt for a u-turn, long distance travel.
Silas said the first tragic experience was few years ago, he could not exactly remember the year anyway, then that of the last rainy season and this year that his journey was summarily suspended, failing to meet the deadline for official engagement because the flood occasioned by downpour for about 8 hours has cut off the culvert, linking the road.
“Motorists from Yola and Gombe would have to make a u-turn to Gombe for an alternative road through Darazau, which multiplies the distance.
“Some of the motorists earlier informed about the flood would have to take the risk for an alternative road through Kashere from Billiri. It is indeed a costly risk because the road is not only tough and rough, it is also threatened by flood, driving miles away through the forest,” Silas would explain.
An authority on the construction site spoken to said that it would take about one week for the road to be fixed.
The motorists the Periscope Global interviewed, having expressed dismay, called on the constituted authority to consider constructing a bridge rather than culvert to end the annual flood menace.
The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) we’re told has been handling the road. However, the maintenance agency could not go beyond building culverts on the highway.
“If some state governors in the northeast would build bridges on dry lands, called flyovers, there’s no reasonable, rather convincing excuse for not having a befitting bridge to end the flood of federal disappointment on this highway,” the motorists would lament.