By Uzor Odigbo
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola has said that the Federal Government has completed the rehabilitation work on the Lagos 3rd Mainland Bridge.
He stated this during the inspection of work on the bridge on Thursday. It would be recalled that the partial closure of the 3rd Mainland Bridge took effect on the 24th of July.
Fashola who was represented by the Federal Controller of Works, Lagos State, Olu Kayode Popoola (FNSE) said that the other lane would immediately be closed by 12mid-night on Saturday.
According to him, the equipment would be transferred to the other lane and by Sunday while the completed lane would be opened for the public by midnight.
By Monday you can use this lane to go to work, it’s just to allow us to move the materials and equipment to the other lane that’s why we want to carry out the total closure for just 18hrs, so after that this lane is free for the comfort of everybody’s use”, the controller of works stated.
According to him, 18hrs will be effective from midnight of Saturday to Sunday, adding that not later than 3 closures would be expected because of the concrete. We have to allow the concrete to achieve the maximum strength when we open it to the public, he explained.
He stated that no vehicle would be allowed to move along the lane during the period of total closure.
“What we are going to do now is partial closure, when we are going to do casting we do total closure. Partial closure he explained means that we are closing one lane and allow service to move on one lane but total closure means no vehicle would move on any of the lanes, he stated.
Popoola said that ever since the commencement of the work about 4 months was spent as against the 3 months that was planned to use on the lane. He said that the additional one more month was due partly to the weather, adding that at times the contractor would start work and rain would start, hence the delay.
Again, another major thing that still caused the delay was the EndSARS protests. According to him, immediately after the EndSARS protests they could not carry the concreting of the expansion joints as planned. Nevertheless, today we are done with the job on the Oworonsoki planed lane between Adekunle and Adeniji Adele.
He said that now, the contractor was moving to the other lane that’s Alan Band lane with effect from Sunday 22nd, we are still going to use another 3 months adding that the diversion would still be at the same points
“We are still going to give preference to people coming to the Island, that’s if you are coming from Oworonsoki you would use Island band lane and when you now get to Adekunle, you would do the diversion”, he explained adding that the time still remains from 11:55pm – 11:5am every day
Just as you have cooperated with us while we were working on Oworonsoki band lane, I’m still seeking your cooperation especially the motoring public to give the contractor time to work, obey the traffic law enforcement agents, so that we would not exceed the 3 months all things being equal, he implored.
I want to thank everybody, I want to thank especially the Lagosians for the cooperation that we enjoyed as our host community on behalf of the Federal Government. Since the beginning of the rehabilitation we have been working together with the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), that’s why the rehabilitation work was hitch free, we are still looking towards that cooperation, Popoola expressed.
He explained that because of dislocation that is why rubber was used to fix the first joint, whereas other ones were being on the carriage way, adding that the joint is different.
All things being equal, some of the expansion joint which we are going to fix they have already provided them. Unlike the time we started that, they started mobilizing, they started testing, now three expansion joints are already on ground for them to fix adding that the February 2021, is not going to be extended if there is no any other major problem in the country.
“As I said EndSARS protests contributed majorly to the delay of this project, we wouldn’t have spent up to that 12weeks, we could spend less if not because of the protests” so the February deadline would still be maintained, Popoola added.
The Executive Director, Borini Prono, Nigeria Limited, Paulo Prono, the contractor that is handling the replacement of the joints, said that the company would try its best to maintain the original plan for the first week of February 2021
“Despite the delays that we had due to the EndSARS protests and other things we will try to do our best to maintain the original plan. So now we have already prepared some of the steel we have to fix on the joints.
So we are ready for 3 joints already, our machines will start work, we are used to the job, I think we can do something better to maintain the original plan”, the contractor assured.
Deputy Corps Commander, FRSC, Lagos State (DCC Operations), Matthew Cyril Zango, still appealed to the motorists, Lagosians to still bear with the Federal government in ensuring that the other side of the work is been taken care of
They should continually obey traffic rules, and we will continue to be on ground 2/7 to ensure free flow of traffic”, he maintained
