Barely three months to the completion of the Abule-Egba/Ojo-Oba flyover on the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway in May; residents of the area are not happy despite the huge benefits the bridge will bring to Lagosians.
News Agency of Nigeria had reported three months ago in December 2016 that an unnamed engineer working on the bridge said it was already 70 per cent complete.
“We have constructed a borehole that supplies water constantly on this bridge because we need a lot of water for the soil to set; we are even praying for rain.
“We have constructed the retaining walls, the bridge casting is 70 per cent completed.
“We are filling the road base, the tough job is the concrete which we have tackled,’’ the engineer said.
A section of the Lagos bridge at Abule Egba on the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway as at March 2017.
But ZENITHBLOG.com gathered during a visit to the area between Monday, March 20 and Thursday, March 24 that while the residents of the suburban region of Lagos are delighted that the construction of the bridge would reduce traffic on the popular and all-important expressway, they are bothered that the state government may leave their own roads in poor shape.
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A resident of the area simply named Olawale, who spoke with our correspondent, noted that the construction, which has been going on for over a year and one month, has made roads in the streets deplorable.
He noted that calls made to the state government to repair some of the street roads to which the huge traffic on the expressway was diverted have not been heeded.
According to him, the main excuse given was that most of the street roads are on underground pipelines and cannot worked on.
“What kind of excuse is that? Some of these roads were unsealed but good enough for road users before the heavy traffic in the last one year destroyed them completely. Now, they are saying the roads cannot be touched because pipelines are underneath?
The bridge is set for completion in May but residents are worried that other street roads may be left unrepaired.
“Even the expressway has pipelines passing underneath it, yet it was scraped and a fly over built on it. Is it fair for the government to forget us after we opened our streets to ensure the bridge was constructed?” he queried.
“The government should not forget us,” he concluded.
When ZENITHBLOG.com visited the area, it was discovered that most of the street roads are really bad. Many of them had deep potholes, massive ditches and overflowing or damaged drainages.
The most affected are places like Idowu Adeniji Street, Arowolo Street, Charity Road, Social Club Road and practically all roads on one side of Awori bus stop.
David Oluwaseun, a road user who spoke with our correspondent, said he has had to stop using his car in order to avoid spoiling it.
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He said: “I have stopped using my car. The road is so bad. There are holes in the middle of the whole like the size of a small crater.
One of the bad roads at Idowu Adeniji Street on Ekoro Road in Abule Egba area of Lagos state
“My car is a small one and its belly drags over the ground when I try to navigate the bad roads in the streets. My only hope is that they can quickly finish the bridge so that I can return to the expressway.”
ZENITHBLOG.com investigations revealed that some other streets and roads destroyed by the diversion of traffic from the expressway have been repaired.
In places like Ekoro Road and the other side of Awori bus stop, repairs have been made to roads damaged in the last one year.
However, ZENITHBLOG.com recalls that at the beginning of the construction, the state government had said its plan is to carry out a thorough work on the area where the bridge is located and those that affected by the project.
Traffic at a bad section of Charity Road, one of the most affected places
“The scope of work includes earthworks, flyover structure consisting of bridge and retaining walls, construction of asphalt concrete pavement, provision and installation of street lighting and service ducts, traffic signal light as well as construction of drains and culverts,” Ganiyu Johnson, Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, said at a stakeholders’ meeting in February 2016 ahead of the start of the construction works.
He added: “Before now, the government was aware of the problem of gridlock at the junction and the pain that people were going through.
Lagos state governor Akinwunmi Ambode (centre) visited the construction site at Abule Egba in March 2017 and the government has promised to repair bad roads surrounding the bridge
“It (the bridge) is to alleviate the suffering of the people; while the project lasts, the government has embarked on the rehabilitation of Ogundele and Ekoro roads. As the project progresses, more inner roads within the project axis will be opened up to reduce traffic on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.”
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