The Lagos State gov¬ernment has reaf¬firmed its commit¬ment to building the proposed Fourth Mainland Bridge which will link the is¬land to the mainland part of the commercial city, faulting what it calls “baseless insinu¬ations” from certain quarters that it has abandoned the project.
The state explains that the delay in the commence¬ment of work on the bridge is because they are still weighing the option on the best approach to the con¬struction t hat will be feasi¬ble and cost effective.
According to Olufemi Hamzat, the state commis¬sioner for works and infra¬structure, though actual construction has not started, much of the preliminary and behind the scene work were going on, disclosing, however, that the project is faced with some challenges.
The commissioner, who spoke at a press briefing organised by his ministry in reaction to media reports that the state has abandoned the bridge project, disclosed that they were considering shifting it from the original alignment where not less than 318 buildings have been identified.
“What to do with the buildings is giving the state government concern, as it will have to spend a huge sum of money paying com¬pensation if it goes ahead to build along the old align¬ment. While the bridge itself is about 3.75 kilometres long, the entire road combining the bridge is about 23 kilo¬metres”, he said.
The commissioner stressed that the state gov¬ernment was not in a hurry to build that bridge even though they have done the soil test, environment im¬pact assessment (EIA), topog¬raphy and biometric survey.
Stating that the proposed bridge represents more than a transportation facility, the commissioner said it would afford students of engineer¬ing in Nigeria an opportu¬nity to see firsthand such development.
“Capacity building is also a core consideration in the effort at building the bridge. The era of exporting such opportunities is over”, he said.
