MONROVIA – Liberia’s Minister of Public Works Ruth Coker Collins has blamed climate change for the slow pace of ongoing construction works on the Robertsfield Highway.

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.

On February 20, 2020, President George Weah broke grounds for the expansion and pavement of the Highway. The 45km links Monrovia to the airport.

The project, which is being implemented through a China-Liberia joint venture with East International Group and China Railways being the contractors, worth about US$95m.  

Construction works have been described as sub-standards due to the failure of the Ministry of Public Works to supervise and thoroughly monitor the ongoing works.

As a result of the awful nature of the road, two people were admitted for treatment at a local hospital after a vehicle belonging to Deputy Transport Minister J. Darious Kollie plunged into a deep ditch along the perilous road over the weekend.

Speaking on the OK Morning Rush Show via telephone on Monday, Minister Collins regretted the current situation confronting passengers and commuters.

She justified that prior to the commencement of the project, the RIA Highway was a hotspot for accidents, claiming the lives of scores of citizens.

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. In saying this, we regret the situation that we find ourselves in whereas climate change at some point affected the project. We regret that there were several other accidents which are not strange; even without a project, there were a lot of accidents on the RIA highway.”

She added: “The fact that we have started the work and we’ve gone into the rainy season where we can’t do more, the only thing we can do now is to do our bridges, culvert lines, our box culverts and do some backfilling.”

Minister Collins pointed out that since last week, these construction works have been ongoing at the site.

Safety

The safety of commuters, travelers and others has been threatened as a result of the dilapidated state of the RIA road.

During the recent convocation and graduation exercises of the United Methodist University held in lower Margibi County, travelers did not meet up with their flight schedules due to traffic congestion caused by the poor nature of the road.

But 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.

She stressed that authorities will also ensure that “everything that we have put in place is implemented within this week because of safety.”

Be careful

“In as much as we regret, we still caution people to take time. We are working along with the police and other governmental institutions to see whether we can divert the entire corridor to the 15 Gate.”

Minister Collins emphasized that the RIA highway remains a major project for the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) led-government of President George Manneh Weah.

She said the ministry is “aware of everything that is happening” in relation to the current state of the road, adding that, the pavement will commence on a portion of the road this dry season and the ministry will remain engaged with all stakeholders, including the contractors and Consultant.

Taking issue with Mccritty

Adolphus Mccritty, seasoned civil engineer, former President of the Liberia Institute of Architects (LIA), and formerly the Liberia Chambers of Architects (LCA) recently alarmed over poor construction works being done on the road.

Mr. Adolphus McCrity, attributed the poor construction works to the lack of proper planning and feasibility studies.

 “This is a lack of coordination, proper planning, and failure to do due diligence or feasibility studies before embarking on such a huge project. This is just being inconsiderate to the impact that this project will have on the environment and on the lives of people who live, work or travel on that particular highway. This is like giving somebody a job to do and the person goes about doing the job without even doing proper planning,” he told FrontPageAfrica in an exclusive interview.

He observed that the ongoing installation of culvert system did not take into consideration nature, especially during the rainy season of Liberia.

He disclosed that efforts will be wasted and the road would elapse as a result of the current situation.

“These people are bothering nature and they will not win unless they work with Mother Nature. They knew the rain was going to come. Those culverts you see off the road and some are stopping one side of the road- in front of those culverts, you see a pot of water there-eventually what’s going to happen is that, that water is going to shift over to the other side creating a soft spot in the road and the road is going to corrode and wash away and you have no way to travel back and forth the RIA route”.

“Any culvert, whether it is a box or ICP culvert, you have to have an inner gauge out; it’s like when you are trying to take gasoline from a container into your gas tank, why do you think you put the container with the gas at a higher elevation than where your gas tank is? It’s because you want the gas to flow freely into your tank. But if you take a container and place it on the same level as your gas tank, it’s not going to work. That’s exactly what they are trying to do over there. They are putting culverts on the same level as the natural flow of water in that particular area. That’s the reason why you see the water is swallowing up the culverts.”

Mr. Mccritty emphasized that the current project will not be of benefit to Liberians and others if the substandard works that are being done remain.

He said it will be a total waste of taxpayers’ monies if corrective measures are not taken at this early stage to correct the wrongs before the project progresses to another level.

“This is complete waste of time, money and energy because, when you are doing a road widening project on a major road like the RIA, the first thing you do is that, you create a detour that is separate from where you are working. That makes the normal flow of traffic to not be impacted with the work that you’re doing”.

Despite his vast qualifications and decades of experience, Minister Collins referred to Mr. Mccritty as a “plumber”.

“Let me just speak about a guy who called himself engineer. It’s too sad to see professional people impersonating. One guy who call himself Adolphus Mccritty-that guy is just a mere plumber. He knows nothing.”

Professional RIA engineering?

Minister Collins justified that the current engineering works at the RIA project are “professional” though the safety issues are yet to be addressed.

“We know we got some issues with safety, but the engineering there is perfect and I can say this to anybody.”

She admitted that there exist some level of misunderstanding with the Chinese contractors working on the project route on the “Monrovia side” in terms of interpretation. However, she fell short to disclose those issues.

“To be honest, road work is just road work. The fact that the detours are all on the road, we still remain focused on that road. So, there were no missteps along the way. There was some misunderstanding with the Monrovia side.”

She clarified that feasibility studies were carried out by a Korean Consultant who has been working along with the contractors.

Don’t politicize the project

Meanwhile, Minister Collins has disclosed that the ministry remains focused towards the implementation of its robust plan to ensure the completion of roads in the communities and the opening of alleyways from now to the pending dry season.

“We are trying to avoid the too many politics; people trying to play with RIA road. We are engineers and we know what we are doing. I don’t want people to politicize the RIA road. That’s why this whole week, we will make sure to enforce the safety aspects of the road”

According to her, the usage of laterite rocks cannot be used to do the backfilling during this rainy season, adding that, “we have pushed the contractors to use the base floor.”

The RIA project, which is being implemented through a China-Liberia joint venture with East International Group and China Railways being the contractors, worth about US$95m.  

The framework calls for the project to be executed into three lots which include: 1) from Roberts International Airport to Junk River Bridge; 2) from Junk River Bridge to ELWA junction and; 3) the construction of the Junk River Bridge and the upgrading of the existing bridge.

The civil works with the actual construction of the road project is valued at US$80 million; design and supervision cost valued at US$7 million; and the management and resettlement action plan valued at US$7.5 million,” Madam Kialain explained. “The length of the road is 45 km or 27.8 miles. The design of the road takes into consideration many factors, including population density, social activities, and the topography, which led the highway into different sections. The new road, when completed, will have a toll location, which is the Junk River Bridge.”

SCHIEFFLIN, MONTSERRADO COUNTY – Representative Tibelrosa Summoh Tarponweh of Margibi Electoral District one has expressed delight over works done so far in implementing the electrification of the Robert International Airport Road Project.  

Representative Tarponweh said, having the entire Robert International Airport highway electrified will bring some relief to his constituents and beautify the airport road corridor.

Touring the vicinity of the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) Sub-station in Schiefflin Town along with LEC officials on Monday, August 29, 2022, the Margibi District One Lawmaker lauded LEC and donors for the implementation of the project. 

He vowed to consistently engage LEC so that all those benefiting communities within his constituency are connected.

“I must appreciate LEC for consistently keeping us updated as they continue their work. As we are here representing the people, we must be selfless advocates in making sure that all of these modern opportunities are provided,” he said.

“This is why our advocacy has been robust so that our people are relieved from using generators. In fact, this is our international airport road.  This will bring some relief to our people and beautify our airport road.  For the fact that we are going somewhere, I just want to thank LEC and the donors for understanding the plight of our people as we engaged them.”

For his part, LEC Project Manager Henry Kimber said when the project is completed, over 30,000 homes will be connected. 

The LEC Project Manager stated that the corporation will provide accessible and affordable power, vowing to complete the entire project at the end of this year.

“We are constructing two sub-station along the RIA Highway.  We have one at the airport while we have this here in Schiefflin Town.  The transmission lines run from Paynesville, pass through Schiefflin Town and extend to the Robert International Airport. At the end of the project, we will connect at least 30,000 consumers,” Henry Kimber intimated.

Representative Tarponweh has had a long standing record of advocacy for the expansion and the electrification of the Robert International Airport road since 2017, describing the only international airport road as a death trap.

In May 2019, he joined other leaders and international partners to break ground for the electrification project funded by the African Development Bank and European Union to expand electricity to new customers along the Monrovia-RIA corridor.

It is under the Liberia Energy Efficiency and Access Project (LEEAP) and entails the construction of over 66 kilovolts (KV) double circuit transmission lines from Paynesville to the Robert International Airport.

MONROVIA – Scores of travelers leaving the country via the Roberts International Airport nearly missed their flight on Tuesday due to the heavy and uncontrolled traffic on the RIA Highway caused by the United Methodist University’s graduation.

The airline was gracious enough to have delayed by an hour to give passengers a chance to board since half of its travelers were stranded in the traffic.

The hour delay in Monrovia, however, led to many passengers missing their connecting flights from Accra, Ghana to other destinations.

The UMU graduation ceremony was held along the highway which is the only route leading to the country’s only international airport. The highway which has been under reconstruction for about a year now with little progress has often been described as a death trap for travelers.

Travelers who were left stranded on Tuesday said the police did nothing to ensure the free flow of traffic on that important road.

An officer of the Liberia National Police was heard suggesting to a 50-year-old international passenger to get on a motorcycle with her luggage if she wanted to make it to the airport in time.

The Africa World Airlines leaves Monrovia at 2 pm but left at 3:30 pm.

“It’s the Africa World Airlines that leaves at 2:30. Half the plane did not make it by the close of check-in. They have had to delay the flight by an hour to give us a chance,” the traveler said.

An international passenger (asked for anonymity) who also nearly missed the flight expressed disappointment at the level of incompetency in Liberia. He lamented that the level of corruption and incompetency he has observed in Liberia overshadows similar in all countries he has served in, including other war-torn regions.

“It really was stressful and embarrassing for the country. People will not want to come to Liberia if they have to deal with this,” he said.

It can be recalled that on February 20, 2020, President George Manneh Weah broke grounds for the expansion and pavement of the RIA Highway. The 45km links Monrovia to the airport.

The project, which is being implemented through a China-Liberia joint venture with East International Group and China Railways being the contractors, is worth about US$95m.  

Construction works have been described as sub-standards due to the failure of the Ministry of Public Works to supervise and thoroughly monitor the ongoing works.

FrontPageAfrica visited the various sites where works are ongoing over the weekend and observed that no representative of the Ministry of Public Works was present at the site visited. A few Chinese engineers, casual workers, and security officers from the Kakata City Corporation were spotted. “This is a lack of coordination, proper planning and failing to do due diligence or feasibility studies before embarking on such a huge project. This is just being inconsiderate to the impact that this project will have on the environment and on the lives of people who live, work or travel on that particular highway. This is like giving somebody a job to do and the person goes about doing the job without even doing proper planning,” said Mr. Adolphus McCritty, a seasoned civil engineer, and former President of the Liberia Institute of Architects.