About a year after it terminated the contract signed with a consortium of investors to construct the long talked about Fourth Mainland Bridge, Lagos State government says a new investor will emerge by June this year.
The project, under the previous contract cancelled in May 2017, would have cost the investors N844 billion to complete. The investors included Visible Asset Limited, Julius Berger Nigeria plc, Hi-tech Construction Limited, J.P. Morgan, Eldorado Nigeria Limited, Nigerian Westminster Dredging and Marine, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), and Access Bank.
The government had cited delay in the commencement of work by the investors as reason for the termination of the contract.
Ade Akinsanya, Lagos State commissioner for works and infrastructure, told journalists on Wednesday, that the state government was at the final stage of selecting the new bidder for the multi-billion naira project.
“We have received a number of proposals for the project. As I speak, we’re at the last phase of selecting the preferred bidder. I believe this would be announced to the public by either May or June,” Akinsanya said.
BusinessDay had earlier reported that the government was sourcing for new investor after it could not swim along with those it signed contract to build the 36km bridge and its road component.
The Fourth Mainland Bridge was conceived by the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu (1999 and 2007), but was unable to implement it. His successor, Babatunde Fashola (2007 to 2015), however, drew up the first alignment/design but could not push through.
The first breakthrough for the infrastructure was in May 2016, when Governor Akinwunmi Ambode signed a Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement with a consortium of investors to fund and construct the bridge at the cost of N844 billion.
The investors were to Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) the infrastructure to the state government after 40 years of recouping their investment. However, one year after the agreement, the government terminated it in May 2017.
The bridge/road infrastructure proposed as one the longest in the world, would connect traffic between Lagos Island and Mainland. It is going to be fourth of such bridges, and would complement the existing Eko, Carter and Third Mainland bridges, which are under intense pressure from heavy traffic.
The new alignment of the bridge would pass through Lekki, Langbasa and Baiyeiku towns along the shoreline of the Lagos Lagoon estuaries, further running through Igbogbo River Basin and crossing the Lagos Lagoon estuaries to Itamaga Area in Ikorodu.
The alignment would further cross through the Itoikin road and the Ikorodu – Sagamu Road to connect Isawo inward Lagos Ibadan Expressway at Ojodu Berger axis. The four-lane dual carriageway is also designed to have eight interchanges to facilitate effective inter connectivity between different parts of the state.
