According to a statement signed by the Federal Controller of Works, Lagos, Olukorede Keisha on Friday, the repair would commence from 7 a.m. on Monday, March 4 to March 25, 2024.

Kesha said commuters leaving and entering Lagos through the Long Bridge will be narrowed to two lanes on both sides of the bridge to enable the contractor handling the repair works to commence works on the other two lanes of the carriageways.

The statement read, “The Federal Ministry of Works wishes to inform the motoring public that repair works for the damaged expansion joints on the Long Bridge will commence by Monday, March 4, 2024, simultaneously on both bounds of the bridge.

“Consequently, traffic leaving and entering Lagos through the Long Bridge will be narrowed to two lanes on both sides of the bridge to enable the contractor handling the repair works to commence works on the other two lanes of the carriageways.

“Thus, all road users are advised to be patient and adhere to lane discipline on both approaches to the Long Bridge and around the narrowed sections on the bridge.”

To ease the traffic during the repair period, Kesha explained that the earth road beside the Shagamu bound carriageway would be made motorable, to serve as a complimentary road, while advising other road users to use alternative routes.

“Motorists are further advised to cooperate with the traffic management officials deployed to manage traffic and ensure hitch-free movements to minimize discomfort during the duration of the repair works.

“While thanking the general public for their continued cooperation and understanding, please note that all inconveniences are highly regretted,” Kesha added.

In October, motorists slammed a construction company, Julius Berger Nigeria Limited, over the repeated temporary repair of the damaged joints on the Long Bridge section of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

NewMailNG gathered that the company commenced construction work on the bridge on Tuesday, September 26, 2023, as they patched the open joints.

The five-kilometre bridge stretching from the Warewa end of the expressway to OPIC, Ogun State, was among the sections of the expressway reconstructed by the company when the project started.

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NAN reports that Florence Okpe, spokesperson of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Ogun, confirmed the incident during an interview with journalists in Abeokuta, the state capital.

Okpe said the accident occurred at about 6:15 am on Sunday.

She said the truck fell after a tyre burst due to overspeeding which further resulted in multiple crashes.

She said 21 people were involved in the accident, adding that five passengers died, while 12 others sustained injuries.

The spokesperson said the wounded passengers have been taken to Victory Hospital in Ogere, near Abeokuta.

The corpses of passengers who lost their lives were deposited at the morgue in Ipara community near Abeokuta.

She added that Anthony Uga, Ogun FRSC sector commander, urged motorists to avoid using substandard tyres for their vehicles and be cautious when driving in the rain.

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Babatunde Akinbiyi, the Spokesperson, Ogun Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE) confirmed the incident to newsmen in Abeokuta on Sunday.

Akinbiyi explained that the accident occurred at 9:59a.m and was caused by tyre burst which led the commercial bus summersaulting into a ditch.

The TRACE spokesperson stated that the accident involved 15 people which comprised three men and 12 women, saying that 11 women were injured while three men and one woman died in the accident.

“According to eyewitness account, the bus marked AGL 989 YA was coming from Ibadan inbound Lagos, when it had a tyre burst on the driver’s side at Ayetoro axis on the expressway which led the bus to summersaulting into a ditch,” he said.

Akinbiyi noted that the deceased were deposited at Idera morgue, Sagamu, while the injured victims were taking to Famobis hospital, Mowe.

He appealed to drivers to avoid excessive speed, tokunbo tyres and adhere to traffic rules and regulations.

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The Federal Controller of Works, Lagos Engr. (Mrs) Olukorede Kesha, announced this in a statement on Monday.

The statement reads: “Due to the recent heavy traffic flow being experienced on the Lagos Shagamu route in the last couple of days, the inclement weather conditions, the forthcoming Eid Kabir and the advice of the traffic management team deployed to manage traffic related issues on the project.

“Construction activities on this ever busy and very important highway will be suspended from Tuesday, 27 of June to Sunday, 2 of July, 2023.

“This is to allow travellers easy passage during the Eid holiday and minimise the discomfort of traffic gridlock during this very important period.

“Travelers are advised to cooperate with Traffic Management Team deployed on the highway to manage traffic.”

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Even after several years of work on the road, said to be the busiest in Africa, it is far from being completed, and the daily toil on commuters,  vehicles, fuel consumption in the traffic snarl, and the negative effects on human life continues. What is more, only God knows how much the project has gulped.

Living in Magboro, Mowe, Ibafo, Redeemed Camp, and many adjourning towns along the road has become a living hell for many who are ‘unfortunate’ enough to have homes in that axis. Countless man-hours are lost on a daily basis as motorists spend an average of four hours navigating a journey that should not take more than 30 minutes. Many have had to relocate or completely abandoned their properties in that axis.

When the stress of commuting on that road became unbearable for a colleague, he had to abandon his property in Mowe to rent a single-room apartment around Ojota. He is now a ‘visitor’ to his own house on weekends. Another colleague had to temporarily abandon his property at the Journalist’s Estate in Arepo, Ogun state, when the suffering became unbearable. He simply moved in with a friend in the Ikeja area of Lagos in order to be closer to his office and in his words, “preserve his life”.

Many others have sad tales to recount about their harrowing experiences while plying the road, and those are the lucky ones, who are alive to tell their tales. Another close friend escaped a traffic robbers’ attack while going to work a few minutes after 5 a.m. on the Kara end of the bridge. Though the traffic was moving, he was caught off-guard when he saw two young boys wielding cutlasses with one aiming for his head. He was forced to stop and quickly gave them his phone after which they disappeared into thin air. He is of the view that if one or two motorists had stopped to assist, he could have easily dealt with the young boys whom he said are below 18 years in age.

Whenever there is a little traffic on the Kara Bridge, young boys working in a pair of two or three use the opportunity to rob commuters of their phones and cash. Many of the robbers target female drivers and elderly men driving alone. It was so bad that

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had to draft men of the Rapid Response Squad to the area despite the fact that the axis is in Ogun State.

There was a frenzy on the road in March this year when the former Minister of Works and Housing, Raji Fashola, included the road as one of the legacy projects to be commissioned by former President Muhammadu Buhari a few days before his handing over power ceremony. However, the closure of several portions of the road for repair works led to another round of agonizing traffic gridlock and the Federal Government was forced to remove the project from the list when it became glaring that work on the project was not near what could be commissioned by the former President.

The construction company working on the road was forced to remove many of the barriers on the road to ensure the free flow of traffic. Fashola, before leaving office, assured that the new government, headed by Bola Tinubu, would commission the project.

Now, in order to work on adjourning roads linking the express on the Lagos end, traffic has been diverted from linking the expressway at New Garage Lagos, forcing motorists coming from Isheri Olowora to pass through River Valley Estate to link the expressway. Also, motorists coming to Lagos now pass through Babcock College, opposite Enyo filling station, to link the expressway. Alternatively, they pass through Ojodu and make a U-turn in front of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Ojodu, to link the expressways at Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Bus-Stop. This is to allow for repair works around the Berger Bus stop and the adjourning areas. Again, this has led to another round of bottlenecks, with motorists finding it difficult to enter Lagos or leave the city. Many motorists now spend an average of three hours navigating that axis.

Julius Berger has been unable to find a solution to managing traffic on the route and the bad driving culture of many drivers, particularly commercial drivers, have compounded the problem. Since last week when those adjourning link roads were closed to traffic, there has been bedlam on the route.

A road reconstruction should not be this difficult. The repair work on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is meant to ease the commuting time of motorists and not to add to their misery.

The pressure on the road, again, is due to the fact that there are no alternative routes out of Lagos that could easily be accessed by many motorists. The Lagos-Abeokuta Express has been in a state of disrepair for several years with both the Federal and State governments not bothered about their deplorable state. The Sango-Ota portion of the road has become a deep gully that even trailers have difficulty navigating. Motorists now take one-way on the route and many passersby have been maimed in the process.

Governor Dapo Abiodun, while seeking votes last year, was on the road and gave assurance that palliative work would be done to make the road motorable. Few days after his promise, hardcore stones were deposited on the very bad side of the road but a few weeks after, the road became impassable again. Elections are over, Abiodun has gotten his second term, and the people are once again, abandoned to their fate.

Apart from that, the Lagos-Sagamu Road through Ikorodu is another road that motorists have abandoned except for those in Ikorodu and adjourning towns heading out of Lagos. Though a bit motorable, it does not make sense if one resides in Abule-Egba to first of all drive to Ikorodu, to link Sagamu, before heading to Abeokuta or Ibadan.

The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was first constructed in 1978 but with over 8,000 vehicles plying it daily according to figures from the Federal Road Safety Corps, the road was a living hell for motorists until the Federal Government decided to reconstruct and expand it in 2009.

The Federal Government had initially made a concession agreement with Wale Babalakin’s Bi-Courtney to rebuild and manage the road for 25 years. The company was to expand the road from Lagos to Sagamu interchange to 10 lanes while the portion from Sagamu to Ibadan would be reconstructed to six lanes. But after the company failed to make much progress, the Government, on November 19, 2012, terminated the contract. Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, in July 2013, flagged off the reconstruction of the road and awarded the project to Julius Berger Nigeria and Reynolds Construction Company Nigeria at a cost of N167 billion with a completion period of four years. Julius Berger is to handle the Lagos-Sagamu axis of the road while RCCG takes care of the Sagamu-Ibadan portion of the road.

The project, which started in 2013, had 2017 as the initial completion date but was later shifted to the end of 2018/early 2019. However, the completion period was further shifted to 2021 and in meeting up with the new deadline, the Federal Government granted Julius Berger’s request to close the Berger-Kara section of the road for reconstruction. Again, in 2018, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved N64 billion for additional work to be carried out on Section I of the Lagos-Sagamu interchange of the expressway project. The Council approved the sum to cover over 43.6 kilometers, which include pedestrian bridges and toll plazas for the section to accommodate the changing nature of the road.

The road project was also penciled down as one of three of the Federal Government’s priority projects to benefit from the repatriated $311 million loot recovered from the late head of state, General Sani Abacha. The three priority projects are the second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Expressway, and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. It is however unclear, the amount that was set aside for the Lagos-Ibadan Road project from the repatriated Abacha loot.

As a major artery that connects Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, to other parts of the country, the Lagos-Ibadan expressway needs to be rehabilitated as it is a vital link for the movement of goods and services. However, the ongoing repair work taking forever has caused significant disruptions to the country’s economy. Besides, the 127.6-kilometer-long road connects Oyo, Ogun, and Lagos states, leading to the northern, southern, and eastern regions of the country.

This is not how to reconstruct a major road. This is not how it is done in saner climes, and this is not a good scorecard for those in past and present governments. The reconstruction of such a road shouldn’t take this long. It is either that the construction companies are incompetent or the project has been turned into a money-guzzling venture where all parties involved smile to the banks every time the contract is reviewed or expanded. Before works began on the road, alternative routes should have been repaired for use ahead of closure of this particular one.

Public enlightenment campaigns should have been done to sensitize members of the public on the reconstruction of the road and alternative routes available to road users. If available, train and ferry services should have been provided and traffic managers deployed throughout the duration of the reconstruction. But when you have an unending major road reconstruction in a third-world country like Nigeria, this is what you get, bringing to mind, the words of the iconic musician, the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti, “suffering and smiling”. Nigerians continue to suffer and smile while commuting to work while those in government are only after their pockets and least concerned about the welfare of their people. May God continue to help us, and heal our land!

See you next week.

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For about two weeks running, the unending construction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has continued to subject motorists and commuters to untold hardship.

In what seemed to be the mother of traffic gridlock, motorists and commuters plying the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway woke up on Saturday morning to the grim terrible gridlock which affected traffic mostly, outward Lagos and Berger environs.

There were stranded commuters sighted around Kara Bridge, trekking to their various destinations.

The gridlock has often time resulted in ghastly auto crashes.

Those who spoke with Vanguard expressed their ordeal which they described as “horrible.”

They lamented the loss of loved ones to accidents, loss of man-hours and suffering health challenges due to the traffic caused by the ongoing reconstruction of the expressway.

They also accused the traffic management team on the road comprising men of the police, Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, and state agencies of insensitivity, even allowing motorists drive one-way instead of enforcing road transport codes for seamless movement.

For Yomi Lawal, a worker on the Island, travelling through the popular Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to his workplace has become a cross he must carry daily.

The movement, for him, has become horrendous as he spends about three hours instead of 20 minutes between Mowe and Otedola Bridge in Lagos due to the prolonged traffic situation on the expressway.

“Many motorists no longer go to their offices and businesses in their cars. They leave them at home and take commercial buses or motorcycles (okada) to Berger Bus Stop in Lagos from where they continue the journey, depending on the nature of the traffic jam,” Lawal said.

He called on the Federal Government to mount pressure on the contractor handling the road construction, to expedite action on the project, noting that many people living along the Mowe-Ibafo axis have relocated to Lagos due to the daily gridlock, while travellers diverted to Ikorodu-Sagamu Road with long hours every day

Another road user, Christiana Dada, a businesswoman, also narrated her ordeal.

According to her, the seemingly unending road construction has resulted in the loss of human lives, time and money.

She recalled a particular Monday morning she left home around 6. a.m. but could not get to her destination at Ojota until 11.00 a.m., after spending about six hours in the gridlock.

“The experience goes on for six days every week. It is terrible. I don’t have good sleep anymore, I don’t have enough rest. This is inimical to good health. We need help.”

According to a commercial bus driver, Tajudeen Alao, commuters always have a hard time navigating the long bridge due to the traffic situation.

He said the traffic situation has been compounded by preparations for the Sallah Festival with high influx of traffic while expressing the hope that the ordeal will be over soon.

He said: “This situation has really affected me and other bus drivers. We buy fuel at an exorbitant price and end up burning it out in traffic. It is a big loss for many commercial drivers since the beginning of the road reconstruction.”

Earlier, stakeholders, comprising officials of the Federal Ministry of Work and Housing, the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency, TRACE, the Nigeria Police, among others had considered new measures to reduce gridlock on the expressway.

One of the outcomes of the meeting was the setting up of a special task force, alongside other measures, to tackle the gridlock.

Lagos reacts

To ease off gridlock, the Lagos State Government on Friday, announced traffic diversion on the expressway and released alternative routes available for the motoring public.

Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, Engr. Abdulhafiz Toriola, who announced this in a statement, explained that traffic diversion on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway became imperative as the construction works on the corridor reached its concluding stage.

He said the diversion plan as announced by the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos State, Mrs Olukorede Kesha, the traffic diversion slated for Saturday, 24th June 2023, had alternative routes open for commuters.

Toriola said the exit from the New Garage bus stop on Lagos bound carriageway en route River Valley Estate, Isheri and Ogunusi Road would be closed to traffic.

The permanent secretary added that all traffic from Kara Bridge on Lagos bound carriageway heading to River Valley Estate, Isheri and Ogunusi Road would then be diverted to the exit immediately after Kara Bridge through Limson Road to connect their respective destinations.

“Alternatively, motorists can also make use of the U-turn by the Vehicle Inspection Services, (VIS) and the Federal Road Safety Corps, (FRSC) Office at Ojodu to connect the expressway through the Lagos State Public Works Office/BRT bus stop,” he stated.

“We have directed LASTMA personnel along the corridor to ensure free flow of traffic along the axis,” Toriola stated.

He, therefore, urged motorists to obey traffic signs and the directives of the traffic management personnel deployed to ensure seamless movement within the corridor.

Meanwhile, as of press time, indications have shown that the directive has achieved little or no effect as motorists were trapped in traffic for several hours.

One-way drive/ road carnage

Recall that in the early stages of the construction, it was a harvest of tears, anger and anguish, as four died while five people were rushed to nearby hospitals in the Arepo community, following an accident involving a trailer and Lexus 350 in front of Rabade Filling Station, Arepo.

It was gathered that the trailer heading to Sagamu rammed into the Lexus, which cleared over five motorbikes on one way. This led to the death of those on motorbikes as well as some intending passengers in front of the filling station.

Also, there had been a series of fatal auto crashes along the Otedola Bridge due to the ongoing road construction.

Passengers have been warned to desist from taking one-way, as many souls have been lost since the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway started some months ago.

The federal government has therefore been urged to speed up the construction works to avoid more loss of lives.

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The projects were identified through the national monitoring and evaluation platform, EYEMARK, which was launched by Buhari in December last year.

The former President noted that the Federal Government could no longer depend on its handful of monitoring and evaluation teams to oversee the vast number of infrastructure projects spread across the country.

He said that given that his regime invested in infrastructure projects more than any other before, it was only fitting to create adequate avenues for close monitoring by citizens.

He said this would close the existing gaps and promote citizens’ participation in governance.

With EYEMARK, the former president said, “The status of projects, the total amount appropriated and dispensed so far are now available in the public space.”

The national monitoring and evaluation platform, EYEMARK, showed that about 33 projects were yet to be completed.

One such project is the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, which reportedly costs about N315bn. This 126.6-kilometre road is said to be at 85 per cent completion.

The Federal Government had again postponed the reopening of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, saying the April 30 date earlier stated was no longer feasible.

The former Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who dropped the hint, said the development was due to heavy traffic being experienced from the toll gate to the Kara Bridge section of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The EYEMARK app shows that Julius Berger Nigeria Plc and RCC are the contractors in charge of this project.

Another project is the Bodo-Bonny Road, estimated to cost about N200bn. The 37.9km road being handled by Julius Berger is put at 75 per cent completion.

Fashola recently said work on the Bodo-Bonny Road would be completed in December 2023, even as he hailed the continued progress on the work, with or without Buhari in office.

According to him, the funding for the project comes from the Federal Government’s Tax Credit Scheme into which Nigeria’s Liquefied Natural Gas and other big companies, like Dangote and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, are investing.

There is also the Nigeria- Morocco Gas Pipeline estimated at $25bn (about N11.52tn). It is the most expensive yet-to-be-completed project.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited is leading the implementation of Nigeria’s National Gas Expansion Programme, including the development of domestic gas pipeline infrastructure projects and the Nigeria-Morocco and Trans-Sahara Gas Pipelines.

The NNPC has signed five Memoranda of Understanding with national oil companies and relevant entities of five African countries on the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project. The five national oil companies and relevant entities are from Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone.

Another project is the $2.8bn (about N1.29tn) Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline project, which is said to be at 70 per cent completion.

The contractors include Oando Plc, Brentex Petroleum Services Ltd, Oilserve Ltd and China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau.

The former Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, recently revealed that the project would help in generating 3.6 gigawatts (3,600 megawatts) of electricity, adding that the AKK pipeline was a major project of the Buhari’s administration.

The NNPC also recently said that $1.1bn had been spent so far on constructing the $2.8bn Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline project.

The counterpart funding for the Greater Abuja Water Project, estimated at $470.76m (about N217bn) is still pending.

In July last year,  it was reported that five years after the conceptualisation of the $470m Greeter Abuja Water Project, the Federal Government was yet to release the 20 per cent counterpart fund for the execution and delivery of the project as planned.

There is also the dualization of Akure-Ado Ekiti Road in Ondo/Ekiti states put at N90bn. Fashola last week commissioned the dualisation and construction of the Akure/Iju-Itagbolu/Ado-Ekiti road, which he said would be completed within a spate of 24 months.

He also disclosed that the award and commissioning of the road took so long because of the necessary process required by the new procurement law.

He assured stakeholders that the financing of the project had been taken care of by the NNPC through a tax credit policy and that construction work would not stop till completion.

The Itobe power plant, with a project cost of $5bn (about N2.3tn), is also pending. The 2,400MW coal-fired power project is put at 30 per cent completion with the contractor as Eta-Zuma Group.

There is also the renovation of the National Assembly Complex projected to cost about N30.23bn. The Federal Capital Development Authority recently said that the National Assembly complex would not be ready till August, despite pressure for the remodelling of the complex to be completed before the inauguration of the 10th Assembly.

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