Lagos-Calabar highway: FG mulls project review for socio-economic reasons

The federal government says it is considering a review of the Lagos-Calabar highway project, explaining that the review is aimed to accommodate landmark features that would add value to the socio-economic potentials of the project.

Minister of Works, David Umahi, who disclosed this during a tour of the highway project on Friday, explained further that government was going to plant trees and, of course, they were going to also have some lay bay. “We can decide that every five kilometers we have a lay bay where we connect all our CCTV cameras. We will have vehicles and security operatives within the cabin there, so that the response time will be like 10 minutes.

Umahi said that government would agree on the number of kilometers, depending on the capacity of the cameras, adding that on the imperative of the contract review, the service lane was never envisaged, CCTV camera was never envisaged and there was no single item of work, like we’re having in all the projects from the removal of topsoil, not to talk of the removal of debris.

I am sure that you’ve witnessed what we did at Third Mainland Bridge. That’s what we intend to replicate in all our highways. And so, the entire stretch of 750 kilometers of the highway from Lagos to Calabar will be under CCTV, powered by solar. And then every five kilometers or 10 or 15, as we may agree, we will have portal cabin where we have security posts; there will be no blocking of the roads; there will be a viewing centre to enable you view the entire stretch left and right,” he said.

The minister commended the progress and quality of work being done on the coastal highway project, describing it as a signature of excellence and innovation on road infrastructure development by the Renewed Hope administration of President Bola Tinubu.

He also commended the vision of the president in initiating legacy projects that would connect the critical economic corridors and boost transportation ecosystem in the six geopolitical zones. He noted that the four Renewed Hope legacy projects and the inherited ongoing projects were on course, explaining that milestone project execution was adopted to ensure a sense of equality among the six geopolitical zones.

The minister said that some of the sections of the projects being executed nationwide, including the inherited ongoing projects, would be ready for commissioning by May 2025. “Work is progressing on Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. We have the Sokoto- Badagry Superhighway. Work is seriously in progress on the project.

Work is going on by Hitech on the Sokoto Highway, using concrete. You have the Kebbi section which is 250km long. Work is also going on there. We believe strongly that we’ll be able to have about 20 km in both sections to commission by May 29th. In section one of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway in South West, we are very sure that we’ll commission the first 20km in section one and 10km in section two,” he said.

He commended the intervention of Mr. President in the area of funding of the projects despite his interventions in other critical priority sectors of the economy, stressing that the President has given very serious attention to road infrastructure. “Don’t forget that this Coastal Highway and, of course, the four Legacy Projects all have train tracks incorporated,” he said.

“The construction of the train track for this section I is going to take off in 2025. So, this is what we are doing. And we believe strongly that the President is going to give Nigerians the road infrastructure that they have been yearning for,” he assured.

Earlier in her welcome remarks, the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, Olukorede Keshia, had recounted the experiences encountered at the commencement of the project, but expressed confidence in the timely delivery of the project by the contractor.

“We encountered a lot of issues which were not foreseen because they were really covered. Like I said earlier, when you’re doing a preliminary design, you cannot do a borehole at every metre. So, when you do at one metre, you do another one at 20 meters. So, in the process of executing the project, we encountered a lot of refuse dumps. It was as if this place was Olushosun, where they dump dirt to the magnitude of about five metres deep in some places,” she noted.

The controller said that the contractor has carted away all that and then replaced them with good soil. “That’s sand filling from the ocean, as you can see; good sand filling, and then we had to wait a little,” she said.