’Femi Asu
The Minister of Power, Works and
Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, said on Thursday that the Long Bridge at
the Lagos end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was not maintained for 40
years.
Fashola, who spoke in Lagos during a
tour of the metering factory of Mojec International Limited, said the
repair work on the bridge and a section of the road would last till the
end of December.
He said, “Contractors have been
mobilised to site and I get all of the complaints. I must express my
sympathy for those who, unfortunately, I think were victims of some
criminal elements on the bridge. I have asked the office of the National
Security Adviser to assist in deploying security personnel in the
section of the Long Bridge.
“We can’t use the bridge while work is
going on and expect that things will be normal. There will be some
inconveniences. The ideal thing will be to shut it down. But we can’t do
that also. So, people must expect that in an effort to serve them, we
will inconvenience them, though not deliberately.”
The minister said some portions of the right of way had to be constrained to enable the contractor to do the work safely.
Fashola said, “If people are patient, we
will finish. That bridge has not been maintained since that road was
built. So, they are removing all the surface of the bridge; replacing
all the expansion joints so that you have a smoother ride instead of
having all those jarring noises when you drive over there.”
He added, “These things should be done
every five to 10 years; we haven’t done them in like 40 years. So, that
is all of the work that they are doing there. They tell me that if they
keep their schedule with the rains interrupting and all of that,
hopefully, by the end of December, you will have a newly laid-out road
and section, and a stronger bridge in that place.
“So, people should bear with us; we are
pushing as hard as we can. We understand the inconvenience but this is
the cost of development. We have left too many things undone in the past
and we just need to start doing them now.”
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