Apapa: Road rehabilitation begins July 7

Stakeholders have agreed on the commencement of the much expected rehabilitation of the failed section of Ijora-Wharf Road, in Apapa, Lagos, on July 7.

This is coming two weeks after the road was officially handed over to the trio of AG Dangote, Flour Mills Nigeria Plc, and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) who are to spend N4.3 billion to fix the two-kilometre stretch, from Forte Oil service station to the Apapa Port.
The stakeholders, including the representatives of the Federal Ministry of Works, Housing and Power, Dangote Group, Flour Mills Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), maritime truck owners, security and traffic management agencies, rose from a meeting in Lagos, yesterday, pledging their full cooperation, with the contractor, AG Dangote, expected to begin the mobilisation of equipment to site ahead of the agreed date.
The Federal Government in collaboration with the NPA, is also expected in the immediate, to engage contractors to carry out remedial work on all bad portions of roads in and out of the port community, including the collapsed sections of Creek Road and Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, to facilitate vehicular movement, pending their full reconstruction next year.
It was agreed at the meeting, that the rehabilitation of Ijora-Wharf Road, should be undertaken in phases, to allow for free movement of people and cargoes in and out of the ports, while an effective traffic management plan and diversions would be carried out as designed by the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) during the repair work.
Godwin Eke, Federal Controller of Works, South West, who convened the meeting on behalf of Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Works, Power and Housing, solicited the cooperation of all parties, especially truck owners, to comply with traffic rules to be unveiled by LASTMA, admitting however, that the work will come with lots of inconveniences.
While identifying drainage as the major problem in Apapa, Eke said the contractor has agreed to mobilise to site, and start the work with building of drainages.
According to him, all security challenges and concerns that may come up in the course of the work, would be handled by the Police and the Nigeria Civil Defence Corps, who had been contacted to design a security management plan for the project.
He disclosed that the Dangote Group had engaged a consultant in the person of kayode Opeifa, former Lagos State commissioner for Transport, to carry out a study in Apapa and make some recommendations.
Listing the recommendations, Opeifa pleaded with the LASTMA officials to be patient with truck and trailer operators and shun molestation, to avoid strike and demonstration against the project.
He also directed the police to ensure that impounded vehicles are not abandoned on the roads, to create space for traffic movement, even as he appealed to the truckers to move their trucks out of Wharf Road in the next seven days, when the first phase of work will begin.
Opeifa, who noted that the roads in Apapa are in a mess, due to indiscriminate dumping of refuse on the roads, called on the Lagos State ministry of environment to clear all the dirt on the roads.
Remi Ogungbemi, chairman, Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMARTO) who assured the stakeholders of the cooperation of truckers, pointed to the fact that government needs to secure holding bays for truckers to use as transit parks because the use of force and intimidation by security agencies would not yield the needed result.
Reacting to this, Wale Musa, general manager of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), who said that the traffic management plan was ready, added that it would be unveiled by this weekend or Monday. He ssured all stakeholders that the plan would be managed in such a way that it would not be seen to favour any individual, but to ensure free flow of traffic, while construction is ongoing.

 
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE