Roads & Construction
The New Look Of The Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Express Road (PHOTOS)
One of Nigeria’s most important highways runs from North to South. The Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Road forms a critical part of this larger highway system, enabling the movement of people and products from the North to the South and vice versa – thereby uniting the Nigerian people and economy, and connecting Nigeria to North Africa via the Lagos-Algiers Trans-African Highway.
To address the poor condition and deterioration of this priority road, Julius Berger is contracted to rehabilitate and reconstruct 375.9 km of the Dual Carriageway: From the Federal Capital Territory Abuja through Kaduna, excluding the Kaduna bypass, on to Zaria and further north to Kano.
To deliver a value-driven solution, Julius Berger is constructing the 3 road sections simultaneously and has pioneered the use of innovative cold recycling methodology. The efficient and environmentally friendly solution results in complete rehabilitation by way of recycling the milled-off pavement to produce a bitumen stabilized material, which is then utilized for paving the base course layer of the new road.
This methodology has numerous benefits. The new road will have an increased bearing capacity, compared to the previous pavement constructed with granular base course, leading to an extended lifespan, it is environmentally friendly and helps to conserve natural resources, considering the reduced need for new material to be mined/damaged asphalt to be dumped, and furthermore, construction traffic is greatly reduced compared to conventional methods, meaning fewer heavy load-bearing trucks on the road, reducing road congestion and diminishing the burden on the livelihood of the surrounding communities.
It will be recalled that in 2017, the Federal Executive Council, FEC approved the award of a N155.7 billion Naira contract for the construction of a hybrid two-lane-six-lane road network that starts from Abuja that cuts through the heart of Northern Nigeria: Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria to Kano.
Julius Berger is using a “cold recycling” methodology – value-driven solution – that has never been used in Nigeria on the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road.
“The novel technological solution ensures that the new road will have an increased load-bearing capacity, compared to the previous pavement constructed with granular base course, leading to an extended lifespan.
