Bridge: Mrs. Olukorede Keisha, the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos State, announced that a comprehensive reconstruction of the asphalt layers on the Third Mainland Bridge is scheduled to commence in late January 2024.
In a Friday interview on Channels Television’s breakfast show, Sunrise Daily, Mrs. Keisha emphasized that the bridge will undergo a six-month closure to facilitate thorough repairs.
“So we were saying let us do a complete overhauling of the asphalt overlay some of them have been long overdue because we haven’t done that in the last 30 years. It is just the failures that have shown up that we have been addressing,” she said.
“It is going to be a complete overhauling of the asphalt layer on both bounds and then replacing it with new ones, so that will give us relief for the next 10 years.”
“The Federal government has awarded that contract already, and preparatory works are pending when the contractor moves to the site because there are some elements of repairs that need to be imported.”
“Pending that we just want to do palliative work to provide relief for motorists,” she said
“It is going to take the contractor 3 months to import those elements needed for the repair ”
“One bound will be 3 months then we will divert to the other bound once we are done with this bound we will bring back traffic to this lane.”
“Afterwards we were going to have a very brand new road,”” she said
On Thursday, the Federal Government declared the closure of the Third Mainland Bridge for maintenance work from Saturday, October 21, 2023, to Sunday, October 22, 2023.
Emphasizing the upcoming repairs, the Controller highlighted the strong reliance of the Third Mainland project on the financial allocation designated for Federal roads throughout the state.
“What we have been doing according to the funds available, You know you can’t do beyond the funds available to you
“Nigeria is a large state, and the funds available to the Federal Ministry of Works in its entirety will have to be shared by the 37 states
“So what comes to us Lagos will have to be shared amongst all the Federal roads in Lagos.’
Furthermore, she suggested that the current administration was resolute in discarding the former approach to road maintenance nationwide.
“What we have been doing is sectional rep[airs, we look at areas that have failed and promptly attend to those areas and when you attend to this area this year, you discover another area is going to come up next year.”
“But this new administration has said no to sectional repairs because if we do that we are going to have what we have been doing before and next year another area will show up as a failure.”
Read also: FG Announces Closure of Third Mainland Bridge for Repair