The Federal Government has said access to Apapa, Nigeria’s premier port city, through the Ijora-Apapa bridge will henceforth be restricted, as the bridge which has failed at a critical spot will be shut down temporarily beginning from last Sunday (yesterday).
The shut down affects the outbound lane of the bridge which leads from Apapa to Ijora.
Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who disclosed this at a stakeholders consultative meeting on the collapsing bridge, Sunday, said shutting down the bridge was a difficult choice, pointing out that saving lives was a better choice than the inconvenience the closure of the bridge would bring.
“It is a sobering experience that the Federal Government is now dealing with many years of neglect”, he lamented, disclosing that there were many other bridges across the country which were crying for attention, maintenance and repair.
Fashola had during the inspection of the bridge last week Thursday, recalled that the Apapa bridge was over 40 years old, and had not received proper maintenance for that period, yet continued to take axle loads exceeding its capacity, due to the busy nature of the terrain.
“The bridge has really been battered by us, abused by us, and as a result, we are having the contractor do a total evaluation of what is seen and unseen, so that we can restore the bridge to something close to its original form by the time we finish.
“We will change the expansion joints, mill the surface, replace the surface and also replace some of the reinforcements and strengthen them. We cannot reach a conclusion until we see all the engineering requirements, designs and costs,’’ he said.
The bridge is one of the two major routes to Nigeria’s major ports but has suffered terrible neglect, just like the second route—the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway – which has also been degraded by the activities of trucks and tanker drivers who park indiscriminately and even defecate on the expressway.
Announcing that Julius Berger, the German construction giant, would carry out the temporary repair on the bridge, the minister said whatever was to be done now was a temporary measure, explaining that major work on the bridge would wait till next year when it will be captured in the budget, along with other bridges on which stress tests would be conducted to ascertain their integrity.
He appeal to truck owners associations not to see the closure of the bridge as an excuse to shut in fuel supply or to choke the environment with indiscriminate parking of their trucks, thereby inflicting needless pain and suffering on other road users.
Fashola called for closer co-operation between the transport unions and the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, so as to control traffic in such a way that residents, businesses and commuters are not subjected to too much stress.
Dayo Mobereola, the Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, said the hole on the bridge would be covered with a temporary steel plate and that the road would be barricaded until work was completed, soliciting for the collaboration of every security apparatus in the country to ensure that diversion was respected.
Remi Ogungbemi, president Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), who commended the government’s urgent intervention on the bridge, however pointed out the need to also consider other failed infrastructure within and around Apapa.
According to Ogungbemi, the Tin Can axis of Apapa-Oshodi Expressway also urgently required attention. “If the Tin-Can axis is fixed, it will reduce pressure on the defective bridge,” said Ogungbemi.
He assured of the readiness of AMATO to cooperate with the federal and Lagos State government, especially by adhering to the alternative routes, while the bridge rehabilitation lasted.
Tayo Aboyeji, South West public relations officer of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), speaking on behalf of tanker drivers, also assured that they would adhere to the re-routing of traffic during the rehabilitation.
Aboyeji asked the government to ensure that the contractor- Julius Berger, fast-track the work, so as to limit the pain the rehabilitation would cause the motoring public. “The repair work will shut down some depots and so, we appeal to the contractor to speed up the work,” said Aboyeji.
Though the minister assured that the Trailer Park on Apapa-Oshodi Expressway would be completed and put to use soon, he flayed the idea that informed government’s construction of the park, stressing that no government, anywhere in the world, provides parking lots for private businesses.
“The contractor handling the park stopped work because he was not paid, but we are making efforts to pay him so that he can return to site and finish what is left of the construction work”, he assured.
CHUKA UROKO, JOSHUA BASSEY & LOLADE AKINMURELE
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