For motorists on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, whose driving experience has been anything but pleasurable, hope is in the horizon as the federal government has set new date for the completion of construction work on that expressway.
The federal government says work will be completed in September (this month) 2023 on the expressway which, arguably, is one of the oldest and most tortuous road construction sites in Nigeria.
Dave Umahi, Minister for Works, who announced the new completion date during his inspection tour of road facilities in Lagos Wednesday stressed that the expressway would be free by mid-September.
The minister said that, henceforth, federal roads would be built with concrete to enable them last longer, adding that construction would also go on at night to fast-track the process and reach the target time.
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“We want to introduce night work to make work faster. At the time of lifting bridges, no vehicle will be on top of it; from 12 midnight, we lift them where traffic slows; we will let people know what we are doing,” Umahi assured.
He explained that if bridges were not completed, they might collapse and cost multi billions of naira to fix and promised that there would also be good drainage built under the bridges which would be under the care of the state government for maintenance.
“We will build drainages; under the bridges will be concreted and handed over to the state government, they can create parks and beautify it,” he said.
Meanwhile, the project inspection began at Outer Marina in Lagos Island, where the Federal Government had reconstructed roads using the SUKUK financing option.
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Other Federal Government projects on the Lagos and Ogun corridor were inspected, including the Deep Sea Ports, the Apapa Oshodi Expressway, and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
According to the scorecard that the Ministry of Works and Housing produced toward the end of the previous government, a total of 8,352.94 km of roads were built and rehabilitated between 2016 and 2022.
The minister also said there would be constant engagements with cement manufacturers on price issues, comparing prices around the West African coast to compete with what we have in Nigeria.
