Eko Bridge reopening: We are ready, FG assures

The federal government says they are ready for the Sunday, July 9, 2023 reopening of the Eko and Apongbon Bridges in Lagos. The reopening of the two bridges, which is expected to happen by midnight on Sunday, will end 16 uninterrupted months of nightmarish driving experience for motorists going to Lagos Island from the Mainland and vice versa. It will be a turning point.

“We are ready; we are good to go for tomorrow,” Olukorede Kesha, the federal controller of works in Lagos, assured in a telephone chat with BusinessDay Saturday evening, disclosing that right then, she was in a meeting discussing ‘the great event.’

On three main occasions, government had reneged on its promise of reopening the bridges which was closed to traffic after a fire incident on Apongbon Bridge on March 23, 2022 to enable repair work on the damaged portion of the bridge.

The first failed reopening date was December 2022 which did not happen because, on November 4 of the same year, the Ijora Olopa end of Eko Bridge was also gutted by fire. The second scheduled date for the reopening of the bridge was May 2023 while the third was June 30.

It is therefore pretty good news for motorists and other road users that, this time around, government will be walking its talk and the bridge will be reopened.

The government, on June 30,2023 announced that the bridge would be reopened on July 9 which would be five days earlier than the July 15 it had fixed for the reopening of that bridge.

Omotayo Awosanya, Director, Highways, Bridges and Designs in the Federal Ministry of Works, who made the announcement , explained that the downward review of the reopening date was because government was mindful of the stress the closure of the bridge had caused to Lagosians.

“We have put pressure on the contractor to reopen the bridge on Monday for traffic. This will reduce the stress presently on other bridges connecting the Island and the Mainland,” he said.

“At exactly midnight on Sunday, July 9, the bridges will be re-opened so that commuters will have smooth passage on Monday morning of July 10,” he said, pointing out however, that after the bridges were re-opened, there would be intermittent short closures to continue repairs.