IMPACT OF ABANDONED ROAD CONSTRUCTION ON THE ENVIRONMENT (A CASE STUDY OF AWKA SOUTH L.G.A.)

1.1 Background of the Study
The well-being of any nation lies on its functional and a readily available infra-structure. Infrastructural facilities play a key role in every nation and enhances the built environment. According to Macdonald, (2015) infrastructure can be defined as the aggre¬gate of all facilities that allow a society to function effectively, believing it as a wide range of economic and social activities crucial to creating and enabling an environ¬ment for economic growth and an enhanced quality of life. The impact of abandoned urban infrastructure in Nigeria on our environmental sustenance is enormous due to the continuous abandonment of urban infrastructure in Nigeria (which has become very worrisome); thus, the need to pay urgent atten¬tion to the causes of this abandonment has become very germane. Adesina, (2010) opined that more than N5 trillion in government projects were abandoned across Nigeria, expressing “deep worry” over the situation considering the fact that the country was incurring huge losses due to the abandonment.

Road construction projects in Nigeria are confronted with a lot of complexities and ambiguities as a result of uncertainties of not meeting project deadlines which also hinge on low quality and cost overruns, which invariably lead to failure and abandoned of such projects. According to Amade et al. (2015), incessant failure and abandonment of road projects by the public sector in Nigeria has affected the development of the country. By abandonment, one means to leave something, especially something you are responsible for with no intention of returning to it (Advanced Learners’ Dictionary, 2007). The road construction project is known to be the primary and focal point on which the development of any country rests. It is viewed as the live wire as well as an instrument of choice of a country due to its role in providing the basic requirements for the entire citizenry. To a greater extent, the growth and development of a country is determined by the quality and capability of its products from the road construction sector. Unfortunately, the inherent complex, uncertain and dynamic state of most road construction projects created obvious problems of not achieving their initially stated objectives. Despite Nigeria’s position as the largest economy compared to other African countries, Nigeria has persistently performed poorly in terms of providing for her citizens the best life can offer in terms of good roads. Construction is an industry that involves complex and dynamic processes. It consists of successful coordination of multiple discrete business entities such as professionals, tradesmen, manufacturers, trade unions, investors, local authorities, specialists, trade contractors, and others. Road construction projects impact on a nation’s economy and successful completion of this construction projects leads to wealth creation, socioeconomic growth and improved standards of living. Nations are evaluated as “developed”, “developing” and underdeveloped” based on the quantity and quality of completed road construction projects in their domain. However, in every project to be undertaken, planning is very important, hence the rate of abandoned road project in the South Eastern Nigeria is so alarming, for examples, Awka-Onitsha express road, Enugu-Onitsha express road, Nnobi-Igboukwu express road, to mention but few. However, this study is focusing its attention on Awka South L.G.A. This abandonment on road construction projects therefore impacts on the economic projections of these states and the nation at large. Delays in the completion of abandoned highway construction projects are one of the most recurring problems facing the country. It has resulted to costly, risky and undesirable consequences on the projects’ success in terms of time, cost, quality and safety. That said, the daring influences exerted on the overall economy of a country by these road construction projects, especially the abandoned ones cannot be taken for granted.