The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, (FERMA) Ebonyi state has revealed that dumping refuse was responsible for the deplorable nature of some federal roads in the state.

Ebonyi state field engineer of the agency, Akinyemi Ojo, disclosed this to journalists during the inspection of ongoing rehabilitation of some portions of failed Abakaliki/Enugu highway which became death trap for motorists and other road users following their deplorable nature.

Mr. Ojo who noted that some of the fixed roads were constructed with concrete, blamed road failures on human activities.

He urged the people to avoid disposing dirts on drainages which can cause flood and destroy the roads.

“We discovered that some concrete roads failed and from investigation, we discovered that it was from the foundation. So, after cutting and scooping out, we actually confirmed that it happened because water was rushing out from under the ground that shows that the ground level water is up and they didn’t take care of that before the construction. That was what causes the failure and that is what we are addressing and correcting

“There is a washout at km 8.700 along this Abakaliki/Enugu road, that one has been corrected, we have fixed it and it is motorable. When that one happened, our attention was called by the Civil Defense and DSS to that location which they wrote to our agency and immediate action was taken and we are able to rectify that.

“There is another one in that same location, the approach of the bridge. Some months back, it was a death trap for motorists but to the glory of God, we have been able to arrest that, we have fixed it properly and it is working. There is another bridge that is accident prone. Our attention too was called to it by the DSS at the front of FETHA 2 in Abakaliki here and we have corrected that. We have opened it for traffic.

“Some of the failures is as a result of human activities. Like that FETHA that we worked, people were pouring dirts on one side of the road, people are pouring waste inside the drain and they are not clearing the thing. Once the drain is seated up, definitely, it will cause the flood to take place on the carriage ways and once there is too much of water on the carriage ways, asphalt will fail.

“Motorists should take caution and people of the community too, the road users should take caution and manage the road well. It is not everything that the government will do for us. We have our own little part to play by making sure that we are not pouring dirts inside the drain”, he stated.