By Our Correspondent, Asaba

The washed-out section of the East-West Road at Agbarho in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State may receive a permanent engineering solution in the form of a mini-bridge or multi-cell culvert.

This followed an inspection of the damaged section by Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, and officials of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc on Saturday.

The governor said the road failure occurred after about six consecutive days of heavy rainfall, which caused a large volume of water from different parts of Agbarho to pass through the affected area.

Oborevwori said he immediately contacted Julius Berger after the road collapsed, citing the company’s experience in handling major infrastructure interventions.

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“When I saw what happened as a result of the rainfall, which continued for about six days, and the place collapsed, I immediately called Julius Berger, knowing that they are very competent in this kind of intervention, to move in,” the governor said.

He said the immediate objective was to restore traffic, while technical work was being undertaken to determine a permanent solution.

The governor assured that the Delta State Government was prepared to fund the permanent remedial works.

According to him, the permanent intervention must be capable of accommodating the volume of water passing through the area to prevent a recurrence of the problem.

The Regional Manager of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Fredrick Wieser, said the company had commenced emergency works alongside surveys and hydraulic assessments.

“At present, we are only doing emergency work to enable traffic to flow. We are already on the ground carrying out a survey, and our design team is already working on the design,” Wieser said.

He explained that the final design would depend on hydraulic calculations.

“It will either be a mini-bridge or a multi-cell culvert. That means three or four cells. Based on the hydraulic calculations, it will be decided how many culverts need to be constructed,” Wieser said.

Oborevwori disclosed that Julius Berger had assured the state government that the affected portion would temporarily be made accessible to motorists, with the two lanes expected to reopen shortly.

The governor also commended the construction company for its swift response and expressed sympathy to motorists and residents who had been affected by the road failure.

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He described the East-West Road as a major economic corridor linking Delta with Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states.

The governor said the accessibility of the highway was crucial to the movement of people, goods and economic activities across the South-South.

Recent reporting has also confirmed that the damaged section followed heavy rainfall and erosion, with emergency intervention initiated to ease traffic disruption.