The Ugwuomu-Nike-Opi-Nsukka Road is being expanded and straightened
By Tony Adibe
The need to ensure travellers’ convenience, safety, and security, as well as facilitating the pace of vehicular movement, are the key reasons the Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah-led administration has decided to expand and straighten the sharp curves or bends on the 48-kilometre Ugwuogo-Nike-Opi-Nsukka Road.
The Permanent Secretary, Enugu State Ministry of Works, Engr. Anyaora Okereke, made this disclosure on Monday while taking journalists on an inspection tour of the ongoing dualisation and expansion works on the road and several other construction works the government is executing.
NEWSBITS reports that the road which was built over eight years ago by the former Governor Sullivan Chime-led administration, connects Enugu capital territory through Nsukka towards the northern part of Nigeria faster than the old federal road that has remained in a deplorable and pitiable condition over the decades. However, travelers on the Ugwuogo-Nike-Opi-Nsukka Road, before now, had experienced frequent road traffic crashes and several incidents of kidnappings, thereby making it a rather dreaded highway and one of the not-too-safe roads to travel on in Enugu State.
But the ugly trend in the recent past is what the state government has decided to stop so that motorists and other users of the road would travel without having their hearts on their palms, according to Engr. Anyaora, who briefed journalists after taking them to various points of the ongoing construction work.
The Permanent Secretary, who represented the State Commissioner for Works, Engr. Ben Osy Okoh, also spoke on the importance of the road and why the curves or sharp bends are being straightened, thereby reducing the road from 48 kilometres to 44.3kilometres. He also commented on the security and safety challenges road users faced on the Ugwuogo-Nike-Opi-Nsukka Road.
He said: “We all know the importance of this Ugwuogo-Opi-Nsukka Road. The road has been in existence for more than eight years. And it is a major corridor between Enugu capital and the Enugu North Senatorial Zone, which harbours Nsukka and other important communities.
“So, because of the level of traffic we usually experience on this road, the Governor Peter Mbah-led administration found it very, very necessary for it to be dualised, and here we are. Now the original length of this road is approximately 48 kilometres. But where we are standing at this moment is where the state government thought it wise to have the road strengthened. We know the security challenges and accidents we have faced on this road before now.
“Now, what we are doing now from this stretch where you are seeing that green bus all the way to where we are going to stop is where we are stretching out the alignment. And that stretch is about 6 kilometres. Now, this stretching out has shortened the road by almost 5 kilometres. Because when you passed through the curves before, it would take up to 48 kilometres, but now what we are doing is 44.3kilometres. With this stretching of the alignment, it has reduced it to 44.3kilometres. So, we start here for us to appreciate where we are starting. Then we now go through where we have a very big earthwork going on. I think we have over 8,000 earthworks going on; and then we get to the end, from where we proceed to the popular Opi Junction, Nsukka.
“What we have here is going to be a culvert. We also have two other culverts which we are going to do before we get to where it joins the final alignment again.”
