Julius Berger begins construction work on Cotonou Road Bridges

Promoting equal opportunity, healthy ethnic diversity among multicultural workforce

Top notch engineering Construction Company, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc recently kicked off the first phase of its contracted construction works in Cotonou, Republic of Benin. The field operations which began after preliminary works on a major highway, Acces et traversee de Cotonou, ATC 2 are already completed, which signifies the commencement of rehabilitation works including reconstruction of access roads in the city.

Last week, a visit to Section 1 of ATC 2 showed that work on Roads 7, 9 and 10 was in a full gear, especially on Road 10, the major presidential route to and from the Aeroport. Though the road is a very busy highway, Julius Berger has deployed its renowned engineering expertise in the construction works without obstructing traffic flow.

According to the Site Manager, Vodounou Blaise, there is a lot of work we are doing here in Benin. Here, before you start any major construction work, the first thing you do is to identity any network cable buried underground. Next, you must work with the service company to unearth and relocate them before you can commence real construction work. So, a lot of expertise and patience is required. He added that while Julius Berger has the seasonal weather changes to contend with, work is still on.

He disclosed the details of work being done on that site; thus, we are now working on the drainage, putting slabs on the adjoining Road 9. This includes the changing of interlocking stones on the road pavement preparatory to the laying of asphalt on the road. We have a government engineer who is the liaison with the community and stakeholders and for this, we are thankful that we do not have nor envisage any problem with the communities.

Work on Road 7 of the ATC 2 has also commenced with the demolition of old and dilapidated pavements and concrete walls.

At Julius Berger’s workshop in Cotonou too, workers were busy on diverse installations in the garage as work on the offices have since been completed

The Workshop Supervisor, Mr. Noal Lacey was upbeat last week when he explained that the Asphalt plant located at Calavi, North of Cotonou city, will not take time to be ready. We have completed the concrete wall. The Hot storage section have been completed too, he said.

On what was left to make the plant functional. Lacey said, “the mixer will be done today, (Thursday last week.) Then we will move on to the Screens, Filter, Box, Dryer, Loading Bins and Elevator. Very soon, this 200 tonnes per hour Asphalt Plant will be operational.”

Equal opportunity/Ethic diversity

Further to its acclaimed status of equal opportunity employer of note, Julius Berger in Benin, continues to live true to its role in this direction. We are encouraging the people from Benin North. We are conscious of the ethnic diversities as well as the way we treat our women here at Julius Berger, the head of projects in Julius Berger, Benin, Christoph Fierrens said.

He added thus: “Julius Berger promotes a sense of teamwork and collaboration among colleagues. Here we have workers from far and wide. There are Burkinabes, Cote d’Ivoire nationals, Ghanaians, Togolese, Nigerians and Beninois working here. They represent a good mixture and its good for the work force to meet the project delivery deadline,”

Giving an overview of the company’s projects in the West African port city of Cotonou, Fierrens said “Roads 9 and 10 and most aspects of the Asphalt plant will be completed this year and that is just on the ATC 2. There are others. But we have to meet the project deadline. We are demolishing pavements, retaining walls, reinforced and unreinforced concrete structure and surveying networks in central earthwork areas  and along the retaining walls.”