FG allays fears of gridlock over Apapa road repairs

Fears about possible intractable traffic gridlock taking root, as authorities prepare to kick-off repairs to the access roads to Nigeria’s two busiest sea ports, Apapa and Tin Can Island, badly damaged by years of neglect have been allayed by the Federal Government and relevant traffic management authorities.
The said repairs will be undertaken and financed  by the duo of AG Dangote and Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, in collaboration with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). The project is slated to last one year at a cost of N4.3billion
The proposed rehabilitation work on the two-kilometre stretch of road has further heightened fears that the traffic gridlock that commuters experience will further heighten in the course of the repairs.
In a telephone interview with BusinessDay, Hyginus Omeje, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Lagos Sector Commander, disclosed that immediately after the Sallah public holidays,  all the relevant stakeholders, including representatives of the contractors, project financiers,  Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), the Area ‘B’ Police Command, the Federal Roads Safety Commission, the Nigerian Ports Authority and Apapa Local Government, would be meeting to discuss a and enduring work plan that will mitigate the impact of the road repairs on traffic flow.
Hyginus Omeje stated that all parties concerned in the road rehabilitation work are deeply concerned about the possible frustration that motorists would encounter and are working out an action plan to confront any traffic challenge headlong.
Accessing the Apapa port which records an estimated 3,000 trucks daily, on the already dilapidated road through the Ijora and Tin-Can Island axis, is a horror.
As at the time of filing this report, the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, including the overhead bridge, has been turned into a parking lot by articulated truck drivers.The gridlock is estimated to cost businesses N140 billion weekly. From  the Coconut bus stop point, through Tin Can Island to Liverpool roundabout, different sections of the road on either side of the dual carriageway have been cut off by deep gorges.
A contract award for a palliative job on the road is purported to be ongoing, but the progress of  the job along the corridor is progressing at  snail speed. Last week, the Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola stated during a stakeholders meeting, that that section of the Apapa Wharf  road would be shut down for one-year to enable repairs.
The minister said this at the official signing of the Memorandum of Understanding and handing over of the project to AG Dangote and Flour Mills; the project financiers, in collaboration with the Federal Government.
Explaining the choice of contractor, the minister explained that the use of AG Dangote for the construction, was to give the road a better outlook, with the use of concrete, even as there was no official information on how the road rehabilitation would be phased, as at the time of filing this report.
According to the minister, the construction is to resolve the challenges usually encountered on the road. Meanwhile, the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has expressed fears that the one year duration announced for the yet to commence reconstruction of the failed section of Ijora-Apapa road, if not properly handled, would inhibit fuel supply to power the national economy.
The country is heavily dependent on petroleum products which are mostly imported and discharged in Apapa ports, where most of the petroleum tank farms are located. The local refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, remain challenged due to years of corruption, poor maintenance, and underperformance.
This has been worsened by epileptic electricity supply, compelling millions of homes, offices and factories to run on generators, which are powered by either petrol or diesel.
Tokunbo Korodo, Lagos zonal chairman of NUPENG, who spoke with BusinessDay on Wednesday, said much as the union would cooperate with the contractor and encourage petroleum tankers to maintain a single line, a lot more needed to be done to ease movement of trucks in the period the construction work is to last.
Korodo stated that it takes an average of two hours under normal circumstances for a truck to load and exit Apapa. But in recent months, given the collapsed road network, trucks now spend two days. “That is why you see a lot of tankers on the roads. A depot should load an average of 100 trucks a day. But hardly do the depots load 20 trucks since this crisis. The reason is that loaded trucks can’t find their way out Apapa to allow others go in. In order not to aggravate this situation, alternative routes would be required during the construction work.
Remi Ogungbemi, chairman of Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMARTO) told our correspondent in a telephone interview that the truckers have only one plan, which is to rent holding-bay at Orile Igamu and Kirikiri areas, but the association cannot achieve that without the intervention of the Federal Government.
“The two spaces we have secured run into billions of naira and we cannot pay for them on our own. The minister directed us to secure holding-bays without considering the fact that we all have our individual garages in our base states and none of us can come to Lagos ports with our garages. This is why like any modern port, we need a transit park that would be owned by the government,” he suggested.
According to him, directing truckers to vacate the roads for construction to take place will not solve the problem and if the government is not ready to help us secure the holding-bays, it means that government is not also ready to solve the problem.
Ogungbemi disclosed that truckers before now, secured a space that was at sand filling stage to be used as holding-bay but the Lagos State Government recalled the place on the ground that it would be used for ‘low cost housing project,’ and that “was part of the reasons why we are still on the road today.
“Though, Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister of Transport, said the ministry has ordered for 200 rail wagons for cargo lifting. The question is, is it the rail that would deliver the goods to importers’ warehouses? Meaning that, for the rail to operate effectively, there is need for the trucks to complement that effort by lifting the cargo from the rail stations to the importers’ warehouses,” the AMATO boss said.

Stating that the road repair project is a good thing and effective operation of the rail system will help to increase the life-span of the trucks, he advised, the Federal Government to handle the problem of Apapa with a holistic approach without considering the views of truck operators as inconsequential.

MIKE OCHONMA, JOSHUA BASSEY & AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE