New Telegraph

FG partially shuts 3rd Mainland Bridge after stakeholders meeting

The Federal Government, on Saturday, partially closed the Third Mainland Bridge, Nigeria’s busiest bridge, for rehabilitation works after site inspections for traffic architecture assessments.

 

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that work began at midnight of July 24 as workmen use crash barriers to barricade the outbound mainland traffic on Adeniji Adele junction.

 

 

 

They went on to line more barriers and signage on various other sections blocking off a section of the Oworonshoki bound carriageway.

 

Supervising the closure, the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, Mr Olukayode Popoola said that the traffic management and diversion architecture had been perfected at an earlier stakeholder meeting on Friday.

 

Popoola explained that vehicles outbound the Lagos Island, at peak periods in the morning, would use alternative routes while the Island inbound lane would take the traffic.

 

He said that at the peak periods in the evening, vehicles coming out of the Island would drive up till the Adeniji Adele junction before they could be diverted for about 3.5 kilometres, then return to their normal lane.

 

The controller added that the repairs are being carried out between Adeniji Adele Junction and Ebute Meta area of Lagos and would last for three months in the first phase.

 

He advised motorists to restrict non-essential activities on the Island within the period of the partial closure to reduce pressure on the roads. Earlier, on Friday morning, stakeholders, including the federal and state government officials had, at a meeting, agreed on how to remove hitches to the traffic management design.

 

Thereafter, they proceeded on inspection of the bridge to redesign some angles for diversion. The Director, Federal Highways in South West, Mr Adedamola Kuti, had assured motorists that measures were on ground to avert stress but emphasized the need for lane discipline.

 

The Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Dr Fredrick Oladeinde, assured that the diversion would affect only 25 per cent of traffic using the bridge. Oladeinde said that 10 published alternative routes and water transportation available options would absorb the shocks, adding that there was no need to panic.

 

Mr Hyginus Omeje, FRSC Assistant Corps Marshals, Federal Operations, Abuja joined the LASTMA General Manager, Mr Olajide Oduyoye, who went through the inspection, on crutches, to offer advises. Also, Mr Mohammed Ali, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations), Police Command in Lagos state, unveiled security strategies and teams deployment to curb crime and criminality on the highways in case of gridlock.

 

The third mainland bridge was last shut in August 2018 for a three-day investigative maintenance check. The 11.8km bridge is the longest of the three bridges connecting Lagos Island to the Mainland.

 

Constructed in 1990, the bridge was adjudged as the longest in Africa until 1996 when the Oct. 6 Bridge in Cairo, Egypt was completed.

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