FERMA Partners US Firm, Seeks to Cut Cost of Road Repairs

• Firm  to establish production plant in Nigeria

The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has said that with the partnership between the organisation and a United States firm, Base Seal international, the huge cost of roads repairs could be reduced markedly.

The Managing Director of FERMA, Nurudeen Rafindadi, made this disclosure when the Chief Executive Officer of the Base Seal international, Danny Bowers, visited him in his Abuja office, adding that the new introduction also delivers superior performance when compared with stone-based or laterite materials.

Rafindadi expressed his concern why Nigeria had not deployed the use of the road maintenance material before now despite scoring a pass mark with the National Council on Works and the payment evaluation unit of the ministry.

“What intrigued me was why we were not quick in trying to start to use it. What strikes me is the kind of longevity, the fact that it has the ability to replace the use of stone base or laterite in road,” he said.

Managing Director of FERMA, described base seal as revolutionary, stressing that it was far simpler to use than other alternatives and also has the advantage of saving cost.

Highlighting on the need to explore cheaper and more effective road maintenance additives, Rafindadi revealed that the agency’s allocation remained at best about 10 per cent of the entire budget of the road sector.

In his words: “I think this a big advantage for small budget players like us and therefore I would say it again to members of staff of FERMA that this is something that will impact the ability of the agency to maintain road sustainably.

“We have 36,000 of federal roads alone and we have in total about 200,000km of all roads. FERMA has progressed steadily in the last few years to intervening and repairing about 5,000km annually,” he noted.

FERMA managing director expressed his delight at the visit of Bowers and the firm’s representative in Africa, Mr. Ike Onyiuke, adding that the collaboration was helping to reduce the cost of transporting lateral or stone-base to construction sites.

He pointed out that although the agency cannot solely determine the establishment of a base seal production plant in the country, however as a significant player in the sector, it is committed to using the product.

In his remarks, Bowers announced that he was happy to see the use of the product in road construction in the country and lauded FERMA for adopting it.

Bowers said “Base seal has observed the successful adaptation of BS-100 chemical as an alternative to stone-base for projects executed by FERMA. We are encouraged and pleased to partner with the agency.

“Base seal will be supplied to Nigeria at an affordable and economical cost and we will also foster the establishment of production in Nigeria.”

Earlier, a documentary of the progress report on the usage of Base Seal (BS-100) in soil stabilisation during road rehabilitation and construction was presented for viewing by all those that were in attendence at the event.

According to the firm, the liquid chemical was developed to penetrate and create hard resilient pavement layers and cement loose materials on the road.

FERMA, it was gathered had initiated the use of base seal on road constructions in Katsina, Sokoto, Ekiti, Edo, Niger and Borno.