Host Communities Along Super Highway Very Receptive, Happy – Eric Akpo, SA Technical

By Jonathan Ugbal

Ahead of the rescheduled groundbreaking ceremony of the 260 kilometers dual carriage superhighway the Special Assistant, Technical to Governor Benedict Ayade, Mr Eric Akpo says host communities along the corridor are excited and hospitable.

Akpo said this Tuesday, at a cleared stretch of the highway in Nsan, Akamkpa local government area while on routine supervision of the project where he stressed that contrary to insinuations in some quarters that host communities are yet to wholly embrace the idea, the reverse is the case.

“The hospitality we have received from the people in all places we have worked, whether survey work or site clearing is unbelievable. It surpasses out expectations, they are excited about the project.

“They feel the project is the beginning of much more development to come for them. You can see (pointing to the locals around) we have them here, the youth leaders are here, they have always been with us and assisting where necessary”.

The Obudu born architect also disclosed a few technical details of the highway which he says will be six lanes.

He says work is a bit slow at the moment due to the rains and reiterated the governor’s stance that the pace will accelerate during the dry season.

“This is a huge project, we cover 75,000 square metres for every 1 kilometre of site cleared, that is 1,000 metres by 75. On this stretch alone we have cleared about 7 kilometres, about 4 kilometres on the Bakassi stretch and around 1 kilometre at the Idundu stretch in Akpabuyo totalling around 12 kilometres so far.

“We are not fully mobilized to site due to the rains and the swamps we are tackling at some points but we are clearing gradually now, awaiting the dry season when we will be mobilizing fully.

“Equipment of one of the partners have arrived Calabar and by the time they move into site, the job will progress in leaps and bounds. We hope to cover at least 15-20 kilometres before Mr. President comes for the groundbreaking ceremony, which we are working tirelessly to achieve” He said.