Lagos-Ibadan road ready month end – Fashola
Motorists and commuters will heave sighs of relief from the end of this month as work on the ever-busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will wind down. Also, the Second Niger Bridge, one of the legacy projects of the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, will be fully open to traffic on May 15.
Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola gave the assurances while inspecting the completed Loko-Oweto Bridge and link roads between Benue and Nasarawa states yesterday.
He said: “”On the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the date we have now, and once again, I want to appeal first to commuters on that road for their continuous patience, forbearance and understanding – it is a difficult project to execute because it is perhaps one of the busiest roads in the country.
“Building through 40,000 vehicular traffic daily is not an easy undertaking; we can’t shut down the road. So, we have to also manage and divert traffic for the safety of those who are involved in the construction. “The deadline date we have for completion now is the 30th of April. So, in barely about four weeks, 26 days, plus or minus, that road should be fully completed, open to traffic from Lagos to Ibadan, and beyond the toll gate up to kilometre 116. That will be done by the 30th of April. “What will be left is nine kilometres, from kilometres 17 to 27. And the reason why that will be left is that the Oyo State Government is constructing drainage across the road, and we have decided that we need the drainage because it will help address the issue of excessive flooding and climate change in Oyo State. “But we believe that it is better to wait for them to finish that project, and then complete the remaining nine kilometres, instead of building it now and having them cut it up again. So, just nine kilometres outside Ibadan is what will be left. But by the 30th of April, your end-to-end, from Lagos tollgate to Ibadan tollgate, the road should be open on the 30th of April for traffic.”
The minister explained that minor things like lane marking and the erection of signages on the Second Niger Bridge would be completed ahead of the inauguration of the project by President Buhari on May 15.
His words: “Yesterday, we had a periodic meeting in the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President with the contractors and our team. We reviewed the challenges (on the Second Niger Bridge) and how to solve them.
“The link road that we formally opened to traffic, the date we have now is the 15th of May, as of yesterday (Monday). We are rolling out all the steps to support the contractor to see that that date is achieved.
“A lot of snag resolutions are going to start; lane marking on the bridge will soon start and erection of signages will also soon start. Just about two weeks before the end of the term, the President will be invited to the completion, and maybe any day thereafter, he will be able to fly in and do the ceremony. But by the 15th of May, the bridge should be fully open to traffic.”
On the date for the opening of the Loko-Oweto Bridge, Fashola explained that what remains now is to send a report to the Office of the President to choose a suitable date for the formal inauguration and handover.
He said: “I believe that some of you were here in January with me to assess the level of progress. And our contractors then promised that by the end of March, this project will be complete. So, that’s why we’re here today(yesterday). They indicated last week that they had finished and you saw as we crossed each of the sections.
“So, we essentially made the timeline we set; so, we’ve kept to that timeline, courtesy of our contractors, and also our staff and I think we deserve the commendation of all Nigerians for the work that they have done.
“This is the bridge that crosses the River Benue. So, the Second Niger Bridge crosses the river Niger and this is a North-South link. The River Niger is an East-West link.
“This links the North of Nigeria to the South of Nigeria, and one of the things that this bridge has done first is to reduce the travel time. If you are coming from the Southeast, for example, and you go through Otuko to link Nasarawa, instead of going through Lafia to Keffi, you can now pass Loko and burst out at Keffi. That reduces your journey time by about four hours.
“This is what this bridge has done in terms of business efficiency, reduction of travel time, reduction of travel costs, and ultimately, ease of doing business.
“In terms of scope, there are two bridges here, the main bridge is 1.8 -kilometres long. So, it is 200 meters longer than the main bridge of the Second Niger Bridge. Although the Second Niger Bridge has a total of three bridges, in terms of project scope, they aggregate to about 2.6 kilometres.
“The two bridges here aggregate to 2.2 kilometres. But individually, in terms of the river crossing, this is 200 meters longer than the Niger Bridge.” Nation
