The Federal government, Tuesday, opened the section 1 of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to ease traffic flow for the North and East-bound travellers either on business trip or on homeward journey to join their families for the Christmas celebration.
The section 1 of the expressway, which seems to be perpetual construction site, stretches from the Lagos Toll Gate to Shagamu Interchange. It has garnered notoriety for the frequent accidents that occur there almost on daily basis, claiming so many lives.
Figures from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Ogun State Sector Command, show that as at the end of last year, 210 deaths were recorded while 214 deaths have already been recorded this year.
Clement Oladele, FRSC sector commander, Ogun State, explained that about 50 percent of the deaths occurred at the construction zones, but blamed that on the impatience of the motorists.
Adedamola Kuti, the federal controller of works in Lagos, assured that the reconstruction work would continue after the Yuletide, saying the Federal Government had set aside a huge sum of money, about $650 million infrastructure fund to ensure that there was no slow down in construction activities.
“The $650 million is meant to complete this expressway, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Road, East-West Road, Plateau-Mambila Bridge and Second Nigeria Bridge under the Federal Government’s infrastructure fund. The fund is growing and, if I have my figures right, it must have reached $1 billion by now,” he said.
He disclosed that the additional work to be done on the expressway had moved its completion date to 2021 and also increased the contract sum by almost 100 percent to N134 billion, up from N70 billion.
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is one of the most important arterial roads in Nigeria being the major gateway to the Northern and Eastern parts of Nigeria. Its economic importance can hardly be over-emphasised, more so as it facilitates trade and commerce between the commercial cities of Onitsha in the East and Lagos in the West.
Oladele observed that, in 2017, his command recorded 1.8 million travellers on the expressway while, this year, as at the third quarter, which is by the end of September, they had recorded 2 million.
“For the Yuletide period, we have started a special operation on this road that will last from December 15, 2018, to January 15, 2019. Our expectation is that 350,000 vehicles will pass through this road. It could have been more, but for the fact that some families have decided not to travel because of expected fuel scarcity and gridlock; we also expect that more people may travel as the expressway has been opened,” he noted.
Julius Berger, the contractor handling the reconstruction work, also assured that work would resume on the expressway immediately after the Christmas celebrations and would continue non-stop. The reconstruction of the Expressway is to cover its entire stretch from the Lagos Toll Gate to where it terminates in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
