The
federal government has announced the plans to spend about N270 billion within
three years for the rehabilitation of 50 bridges, following the decay of many
of the existing ones.
Minister
of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, spoke on Tuesday in Lagos,
while inspecting the rehabilitation of Lagos Ring Road Bridge.
He
said government would start with about N70 billion to N100 billion in year one
and that the very critical ones were being given priority.
Fashola
explained that: “We now have a three-year plan affecting over 50 bridges across
the country for maintenance, repairs and restoration.
“Many
of the bridges we built in the country over the last four, five decades have
not been under any form of maintenance.
“We
now have a three-year plan affecting over 50 bridges across the country for
maintenance, repairs and restoration.’’
The
minister, who lamented that many of the bridges in Lagos and across the country
had suffered neglect and had not been undergoing routine maintenance, directed
engineers to begin work to realign the Apongbon bridge
He
observed that some columns and beams of Nigeria’s longest bridge, Third
Mainland, were threatened because of human activities, sand filling and
ecological factors which resulted in erosion.
“The
work we have come to inspect was awarded some years back when there was an
indication of some mis-alignments here on the Lagos Outer Ring Road which is
the beginning of what leads on to the Third Mainland Bridge itself which is
just about here.
“And
it is being caused by erosion, sand filling and other activities.
“This
road has moved as a result of some sub-soil displacement,’’ Fashola said.
He
decried indiscriminate parking and trading activities in some parts of Ebute
Ero toward the Third Mainland Bridge.
“I
want to appeal to those people who use those areas as car parks and trading to
start moving voluntarily in their own best interest.
“We
intend to repose our right of way while work is going on on the Outer Marina to
free traffic,’’ he said.
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