FG Commences Construction of 700 KM Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road And Maintenance of Critical Bridges in Lagos.

By the investigator Last updated Mar 7, 2024

Emmanuel lkpeama.

As part of strategic plans for holistic economic recovery, the Federal Government has commenced the construction of the 700km Lagos- Calabar Coastal Highway, spanning 9 States with two spurs leading to the Northern States.
This was expressed by the Honourable Minister of Works, Sen. Engr. Nweze David Umahi,during the official handover of the first phase of the project, made up of 47.47kilometers dual carriageway, to Hitech Construction Company Ltd, which is to be constructed in concrete pavement.
The Hon. Minister who was in company with the Federal Ministry of Works’ Controller in charge of Lagos State,Engr. (Mrs) O. I. Kesha,emphasized the need for all contractors handling Federal Government’s road projects to deliver within a record time, noting that the government would not allow variation arising from delays or slow pace of work once mobilization had been done.
Senator Umahi,however, commended Hitech Construction Company Nigeria Ltd for being reputable for quality and speedy delivery of jobs.,acknowledging their efforts in starting work immediately after the contract was awarded.
He said, ” l am here to oversee what Hitech have done and as you can see they have completed some filling of 1.3 kilometer from the day the project was awarded to them,It shows the speed they are going to use to deploy this project. Within a couple of weeks, we awarded the project to them, they mobilized a lot of dredging equipment, and you can see that they have recovered 1.3 kilometer of section one of the phase”he stated.
The Honourable Minister who also visited the Queen’s Drive Ikoyi, the Third Mainland bridge top deck, the under water, the Eddo bridge, the Eko bridge and Carter bridge expressed the determination of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration to carry out a comprehensive rehabilitation of all the bridges which are critical links between the Mainland and the Island of Lagos, which he said is the economic hub of the country.
According to him,these repairs are expected to cover not only the top of the bridge but also the under bridge works.
He said, ” 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 kilometers times two. That is dual carriageway, including the ramps, and it has been done by CCECC. They have done a very beautiful jobs, but we have not concluded. l assure you that before the end of March, we’ll be concluding the asphalt milling and the reasphalting.”
“But that is not all our commitment there. We are installing the guardrails, we are replacing the lights with solar light, we are going to put some decorative lights too, and then we are going to put CCTV camera 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, and so what we have done is to get 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 a Eko bridge by Buildwell. So this one is not a threat to us at all” he submitted.