“They have completed
some filling of 1.3 kilometres from the day the project was awarded to them. It
shows the speed they are going to deploy this project,” Umahi was quoted as
saying.
“Within a couple of weeks, we awarded the project to them,
they mobilised a lot of dredging equipment, and you can see that they have
recovered 1.3 kilometres of section one of the phase.”
FG TO CARRY OUT
COMPREHENSIVE REHABILITATION OF BRIDGES
According to the statement, the minister visited project
sites at the Queen’s Drive Ikoyi, Third Mainland Bridge top deck, the
underwater, the Eko Bridge, and the Carter Bridge.
He expressed the determination of the federal government to
carry out a comprehensive rehabilitation of the bridges which he said were
critical links between the Mainland and the Island of Lagos.
“At the Third Mainland Bridge, we have three or four
critical elements to be rehabilitated. The first one is the deck, and the deck
is about 11 kilometres. That is a dual carriageway, including the ramps, and it
has been done by CCECC,” the minister said.
“They have done very beautiful jobs, but we have not
concluded. Before the end of March, we’ll be concluding the asphalt milling and
the asphalting.
“But that is not all
our commitment there. We are installing the guardrails, we are replacing the
lights with solar lights, we are going to put some decorative lights too, and
then we are going to put CCTV cameras both on top and under the bridge to check
insecurity and illegal mining of sand, which is causing scouring on the piles
and the pipe bits.
“The second job is that some sections of the slab are deflected,
so we have gotten an expert to understudy the level of deflection. That’s the
tendons of the slab that deflected. And so we are going to cut open the slabs,
enter and then look at it, scoop it, and then reinstate the tendons of the
slab.
“There’s nothing to worry about. It’s been done at Eko
Bridge by Buildwell; so this one is not a threat to us at all.”
Umahi stressed the need for contractors handling federal
government road projects to deliver within a record time, noting that the
government will not allow delays or slow pace once mobilisation has taken
place.
On September 23, 2023, Umahi unveiled plans for the
construction of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway.
