Fed Govt mobilises Julius Berger to complete N820b road projects

The Bodo-Bonny road with bridges across the Opobo Channel, Route 430 in Rivers State, and the repair of the 82-kilometer Section II of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano dual carriageway are to be completed as soon as possible, according to a directive from the Federal Government to Julius Berger Nigeria Plc.

The government could not keep negotiating with the contractor over the same projects, according to Works Minister David Umahi.

In a statement released yesterday in Abuja by his Special Advisor on Media, Uchenna Orji, the minister emphasised the necessity for contractors managing Federal Government projects to demonstrate corporate nationalism in price negotiations in light of the severe economic challenges the nation faces. Julius Berger was represented by its Executive Director for Projects, Benjamin Bott, and the Head of Contract Management, Omonigho Brown.

According to Umahi, on September 23, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) authorised the contracts' rescoping and downward evaluation.
"We have Section II, which is 82 kilometres by two, and JBN Plc is working on it," he stated.

Thus, if you look at what the FEC authorised on September 23, the FEC had authorised that the total contract sum within the scope of Berger would be N740 billion. This means that if you remove N391 billion paid already, you now have about N340 billion remaining. This is the scope of their work for the 164 kilometres.”
In order to complete the project in 14 months, the minister asked the contractor to mobilise for construction on the four parts of the Abuja-Zaria-Kaduna-Kano project.