Benin-Asaba Expressway: Why Today’s Difficulties Should Not Define Tomorrow’s Highway
Oluchi Chibuzor
There is an understandable temptation to judge a road construction project by what motorists experience at the particular moment they travel through it. If the road is rough, traffic is slow and diversions are uncomfortable, the conclusion is easily reached that something has gone badly wrong.
For motorists on the Benin-Asaba Expressway, those frustrations are real. Failed portions of the road, congestion and the difficulties associated with travelling through an active construction corridor have generated understandable concern.
But there is another question worth asking: should the condition of a road halfway through reconstruction become the final verdict on the project? In the case of the Benin-Asaba Expressway, that would be premature.
The approximately 125-kilometre project is not simply an exercise in filling potholes or placing another layer of asphalt over an old highway. It is a major reconstruction and expansion programme involving site preparation, earthworks, drainage, pavement construction, culverts, production facilities, traffic management and substantial engineering and technical preparation required to deliver the project.
Parts of the urban corridor are also planned for expansion into a modern 10-lane carriageway. That scale matters because major infrastructure is built in stages.
The finished asphalt that motorists eventually see is often one of the last visible stages of a much longer engineering process. Before that comes drainage. Then there are earthworks, subgrade preparation, pavement layers, culverts, relocation of utilities where necessary, installation of production plants and mobilisation of specialised equipment.
Evidence from project updates shows that these activities are taking place.
There have been earthworks and subgrade preparation, drainage and culvert construction, asphaltic concrete and binder-course development and carriageway expansion. Work has also been documented from Chainage 9+500 to Chainage 30 in Benin and towards the Delta State axis.
BAECC said billions of naira in private-sector resources have already been invested in construction equipment, materials, facilities and logistics. None of this means that motorists should be told simply to endure bad sections of the highway.
On the contrary, a company reconstructing a road that remains open to traffic assumes two responsibilities at the same time: building tomorrow’s road and making today’s road reasonably passable. That is where palliative work becomes important.
BAECC said it has carried out and continues to carry out palliative and rehabilitation interventions across the corridor. These measures are not intended to replace permanent reconstruction. They are designed to reduce hardship while the main engineering work continues.
The distinction is important because palliatives can themselves become victims of the conditions they are meant to address. The rainy season has been particularly difficult.
Persistent rainfall affects earthworks, drainage, pavement stabilisation and asphalt operations. When the ground becomes saturated, some construction activities have to be slowed or resequenced. Asphalt and pavement operations cannot simply proceed under unsuitable conditions without risking the durability of the finished road.
BAECC has also explained that some reconstructed sections have had to be reopened to traffic earlier than engineering practice would ordinarily favour in order to reduce congestion. This reveals the difficult balancing act at the heart of the project.
Leave a section closed long enough for optimum construction conditions and motorists complain about congestion. Reopen it early to relieve traffic and the work may be exposed before engineers would ideally want vehicles back on it.
The frustrations of the motorists are understandable, but they should be seen in the context of a major reconstruction project being undertaken under live traffic conditions.
The present difficulty should also be viewed in the context of where the project is going. The real test will be what happens as rainfall recedes and construction conditions improve.
That is when Nigerians should expect to see the plants, equipment, earthworks and engineering preparations translate into sustained permanent pavement construction.
BAECC must therefore focus on strengthening palliative measures, improving traffic management, and providing clearer information on ongoing works across the corridor.
Accountability and patience can coexist.
Government has a duty to demand performance. Motorists have a right to demand relief. But BAECC should also have a reasonable opportunity to complete the work it has mobilised to undertake.
Changing direction midway through a complex construction programme may create the appearance of urgent action without necessarily producing faster delivery.
The better approach is to keep pressure on the concessionaire to perform while allowing the engineering programme to mature.
Nigeria has suffered too often from infrastructure projects that become trapped between political expectations, public impatience and changing institutional decisions.
The Benin-Asaba Expressway should not become another one.
The immediate priority must be aggressive palliative work to make difficult sections safer and more passable. The medium-term priority must be accelerated permanent construction as weather conditions improve. And the ultimate objective must remain completion of the entire corridor to the promised standard.
Motorists are entitled to be impatient because they experience the road as it is today. But infrastructure policy must also consider the road that is being built for tomorrow.
The Benin-Asaba Expressway should therefore not be judged solely by its most difficult construction season. BAECC should be judged by whether it converts the investment, equipment and engineering work already mobilised into a safe, durable and modern highway.
