Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), says it will soon commence the N1.17billion rehabilitation work on the Bill Clinton Drive at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
Mr. Jibrin Umar, Executive Secretary, FCDA, disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday, at an interactive session with stakeholders.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the project was awarded between March/April this year, with a completion period of 12 months.
Umar said that because of the critical nature of the road, a lot of planning had to be undertaken ahead of its smooth take-off scheduled for Sept. 9.
He said that FCDA had made adequate arrangements to ensure that the contractor mobilised to site on the proposed date.
He said, “The rehabilitation contract for the Bill Clinton Drive was awarded this year sometime in March/April because of the critical nature of that road.
“We had to do a lot of planning for us to have a smooth take-off of the project. We have done every arrangement; we have now penciled down for next week.
“In the stakeholders meeting, we discussed freely with all the relevant agencies that have the issues to do with the development and movement around the Bill Clinton Drive.
“With this, we will be able to have everybody’s input into fast tracking the process of this development.’’
Also, the Director of Engineering Services, FCDA, Mr Shehu Habi, gave assurance that his personnel were fully prepared, having inspected the facilities put in place to carry out the project.
He expressed optimism that the contractor has the capacity to do the work, and that FCDA had set up a supervisory team to oversee the project.
“The arrangement is going to be challenging but we have seen from array of the facilities that have been put in place we are convinced that the contractor has the capacity.
“We are fully prepared especially taking time to access the facility they have put in place as a strategy to carry out the traffic diversion management and control along the road.
“We have put in place also the supervisory team; especially that the route has the dual functions of not only being the principal gateway into the city, but a presidential route.
“This will now enable us to close the existing outbound carriage way so that we can fully work on that outbound carriage way.
“We are cautious of our challenges on this and we are addressing that accordingly. The segment we are concerned about is just around the toll gate,’’ Habi said. (NAN)