Lekki-Ikoyi Bridge: Fashola gives credit to Yar’Adua

 Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has given credit to the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua over the successful construction of the Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge, who he said gave express approval for two federal properties that were within the Right of Way (RoW) to be ceded to Lagos.

The four-lane cable-stayed bridge said to be the first of its kind in West Africa is 1.357m long and was planned and designed by Julius Berger (the contractor) engineers in Germany and Nigeria, with additional technical support from the Engineering and Service Group Bilfinger.

Plying the bridge will attract tolling of different amounts depending on the vehicles. However certain categories of vehicles including commercial motorcycles (‘okada’), commercial tricycles (‘Keke NAPEP’), trailers and commercial bus (‘danfo’) are barred from the bridge. But amount to pay by vehicles allowed to ply the bridge is as follows: Class I saloon car, N250; Mini Vans, SUV and Light Pick-Up, N300; non-commercial buses with maximum seat of 26 persons, N400 and motorcycle of 200CC, N100”.

Conceived in 2008 as a solution to the perennial bottleneck that characterised the Lekki-Epe Road being serviced by only one access road around the Elegushi Roundabout and Lekki phase 1, the aesthetically built bridge provides the standard mega city compliant facility. It is to serve as a strategic bypass along the Falomo Bridge and Alfred Rewane, Independence Bridge and Ahmadu Bello Way. It links the Lekki Phase 1 Estate directly with Alexander Road in Ikoyi.

Speaking at the commissioning on Wednesday, Fashola said two of the Federal Government buildings were initially affected by the construction of the bridge which the late president ceded to the state government to enable speedy completion of the bridge.

He debunked the rumour that the delay in the commissioning of the bridge was being hampered by litigations, describing the rumour as campaign of calumny orchestrated by political enemies and mischief makers. “No court action or order has prevented us from opening this bridge”, Fashola said.

The governor described the late president as one of the first set of people who worked so hard to accelerate the turning of the wheel of progress on the completion of the bridge.

“He was in my view, the first builder of this bridge. When the design of the bridge was completed and shown to me, it was obvious that four properties will have to give way at the Ikoyi end”

 

JOSHUA BASSEY