Pictured: Aerial view of Port Harcourt International Airport

Regarded as one of the fastest developing economies in the world, Nigeria is now also having a complete make-over. Only 20 years ago, Nigeria’s roadworks ranked among the best in the world. But due to poor maintenance; increased traffic and stringent highway construction budget the roads have become dilapidated and worn.

One of the stretches to receive attention is the M10 freeway, with the construction of Phase 1 underway. The construction includes approximately 10 km of M10 highway, including three interchanges and the construction of five bridges. It also includes construction of approximately 2km of the M1 freeway which will form part of a future extension into the Port Harcourt International Airport.

Leading South African consulting engineering company, GIBB is responsible for the design and supervision during construction of the project.

Francois van Aswegen, civil engineer at GIBB says, “Some of the challenges of this project are the availability of good quality construction materials and very wet conditions due to high rainfall during the rainy season. Port Harcourt achieves an annual rainfall in excess of 2400mm per year.”

“The high rate of development in the Port Harcourt region and especially the implementation of the construction of the New City Phase 1 mean that there are several projects running in the same vicinity. The interaction between different projects in close proximity to each other and the fact that some projects are both time and financially dependent on each other, is always a major challenge.”

Van Aswegen adds, “Fortunately, we have the privilege of having the same consulting and design engineers on these projects. The capable personnel in our design offices and construction supervising teams are both technically and socially equipped for such circumstances.”