Expert urges engineers to anticipate drivers’ mistake in road construction
NAN-H-72
Drivers
By Kate Obande-Okewu/Uche Bibilari
Abuja, June 13, 2017 (NAN) Mr Mike Dreznes, Vice President, International Road Federation (IRF), has called on road engineers to make room for drivers mistakes when constructing a road.
He made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
Dreznes also said that building a five star road would reduce road crashes and ensure safer roads in Nigeria.
“To ensure safe roads in Nigeria, there is need for the construction of five star roads across the country.
“And in building these roads you need to understand that people are going to make mistakes, there are no perfect drivers.
“And if they make mistakes, it’s going to impact on the side of the road.
“In constructing a five star road you have to build things into it anticipating mistakes with the appropriate signs and markings on the road,” he said.
He noted that lack of road maintenance was a major problem in Nigeria.
He stated that, you can design and build a great road; but if you don’t maintain it, it won’t last calling for regular maintenance of roads.
He added that Nigeria can adopt a method of maintenance called “contract maintenance” where the contractor is held responsible if the road depletes sooner than expected.
According to him, the method would make the contractor build world standard road from the onset.
Dreznes advised that road safety education should be taught from basic school to higher institutions to establish and inculcate road safety culture in young minds.
He explained that grooming children with such knowledge would inculcate safe road habits in them and they would grow to be good drivers and engineers. (NAN)
KTE/UU/AK/AFA
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Edited by Akin Makanjuola/Felix Ajide