Babatunde Fashola Appeal To Citizens

A week ago, the federal government had appealed to state governments that are financially buoyant to take over maintenance and repairs of federal roads in their domain.

The appeal came after the FEC meeting yesterday presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Babatunde Fashola, Nigeria’s power, works and housing minister, is appealing to citizens for patience, orderliness as well as cooperation from motorists as rehabilitation and reconstruction work on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway progresses.

The expressway, which links the south-west to other regions of the country, has been severally described as a death trap killing both high and low people of the society.

Fashola made the appeal just as the contracting firm, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, handling the Lagos end of the road, explained that the nature of the rehabilitation work on its long bridge section which required the complete scraping off and replacement of the asphalt surface and replacement of the expansion joints necessitated the partial restrictions on the bridge.

Giving an insight into its tight work schedule for the bridge, the contracting firm said the two main lanes currently under construction will be completed by the end of August while work on the various other narrow lanes would be spread over the next four months for final delivery by middle of December.

The firm however appealed that being a very challenging programme which also depended on the weather condition during the period, the cooperation of all stakeholders would be required.

Julius Berger resumed work on the expressway after moving away from the site for over 12 months, due to non-payment for work done by the previous administration.

But first on the strength of assurances given that they would be paid and eventually after the settlement of outstanding bills by the federal government, the contractor began full re-mobilisation procedure which is currently being concluded with full action scheduled to commence from this week.

While the full re-mobilization was ongoing, the contractor began the rehabilitation of the long bridge section of the road by scraping off the asphaltic surfacing, removing the expansion joints and replacing same with new ones and preparing the bridge for new asphalt.

In order to achieve this, one half of the Lagos-bound section of the bridge was blocked to traffic with the use of median crash barriers which allows for only two normal vehicles to pass at the same time.

But this has resulted in heavy gridlocks and breakdown of vehicles further causing chaotic situations on the road.

While appealing for patience, support and orderliness on the part of motorists, Fashola urged them to bear with the federal government and the contractors. 

According to him, the current temporary discomfort will eventually lead to a safer and smoother motoring experience when the reconstruction work is completed.