Liberia’s Minister of Public Works Ruth Coker Collins has told local media that the delay on the pavement of the Roberts international Airport highway is due to climate change and the work is expected to speed up during the dry season.
The 45-kilometer road from the commercial hub of ELWA junction to the airport was awarded to East international, a Liberian and Chinese owned construction film at the cost of US$95 Million in 2020 with design and supervision costing US$7.5 and US$7million dollars respectively.
The highway leading to the country’s only international airport has become infamous for the threats it poses to both passengers and pedestrians, especially at night.
Many engineers and construction experts have since described the road works as substandard blaming the ministry of Public works to do thorough supervision consistent with its mandate.
At least two persons were recently admitted to local hospital after a vehicle belonging to Deputy Transport Minister J. Darious Kollie plunged into a deep ditch that were left unfilled covered with water.
But speaking to a morning show on OK FM in Monrovia, the Liberia Public Works Minister Ruth Collins regretted the current situation confronting passengers and commuters but however justified that the RIA highway is prone to accident even before the road work begins.
She said: “Not one person in Liberia the RIA road project does not concern. On a daily basis, we meet and create ideas on what to do further on the RIA road”, she added.
Safety concern mounts
Because of slow work being done on the airport highway, safety of travelers has been compromised as vehicles continue to fall into abandoned ditches along the road during night hours.
It can be recalled that during the recent convocation and graduation exercises of the United Methodist University held in lower Margibi County, many travelers had to miss their flight schedules due to traffic congestion caused by the poor nature of the road.
However, according to Minister Collins, authorities of the ministry have been consistently meeting advancing ideas on what to do further for the completion of the project because of its significance.
‘Poor engineering work’
Liberian engineer based in Sacramento, California, Samson Brown Toe during his trip to Liberia early 2022 told Liberia Public Radio that the method and standards being used by the contractors that are implementing the RIA road is poor. He warned that creating ditches without timely backfilling is dangerous to vehicular object and human especially at night where the road is very dark.
Many Liberians mounting concerns that the road work along the RIA Highway is critical to many commuters and need urgent attention in order to provide free movement.
