FG goes to sleep on Ijora Bridge rehabilitation despite Apapa gridlock challenges

In what looks like insensitivity with the suffering of motorists and sundry road users in Apapa, Ijora and environs, the federal government has apparently ‘abandoned’ the rehabilitation work on Ijora Bridge which it started some months ago.

Since after the scraping of the bridge surface and closing that stretch to traffic, no visible work has been going on there except construction workers wearing reflexive jackets, sitting in clusters, chatting, sleeping and waking up.

Expectation, when the ministry of power, works and housing started the rehabilitation of that dilapidated bridge in the heat of the choking Apapa gridlock, was that it would finish the project expeditiously so as not to add to the challenges posed by that gridlock which has defied solution including presidential order.

However, Adedamola Kuti, the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, explained to BusinessDay on telephone that “the delay in the rehabilitation of the bridge is as a result of the delay in the procurement of the materials being that they are imported”.

Kuti also explained that work on the Leventis end of the Bridge, which was caught by fire, was equally being delayed because the contractor was awaiting approval from the government as the beams of the bridge needed to be changed, assuring that “as soon as the materials are shipped into the country, work would commence in earnest”.

The Ijora Bridge is one of the only two major routes to Apapa ports which are the busiest sea ports in Nigeria. This explains why Apapa as a port city is not only congested but also suffocating businesses and residences many of whom are now seeking alternative locations.

The closure of the bridge has hightened the notorious Apapa gridlock and added more stress on motorists who have been compelled to use equally bad and narrow alternative routes, spending over four hours commuting to the port city each day they put their cars on road.

BusinesDay recalls that the rehabilitation on this bridge began since April 10,2018 but seems to have been neglected as there are visible and progressive activities on the project.

When our correspondents visited the rehabilitation site, it was discovered that construction workers only come each day without doing any tangible work on the project and have turned the Bridge to a relaxation centre, sitting at the middle of the closed road and chatting or ‘pressing’ their phones.

The unhealthy parking of trucks in that axis has led to the unending Apapa gridlock also attributed to the closure of the bridge, making it difficult for commuters to move freely in and out of Apapa.

BusinessDay analysts gathered from a truck driver, who pleaded to be anonymous, that “it has been difficult for us truck drivers ever since this bridge was closed as we cannot easily go to Ojuelegba; the closure of the bridge is actually a mojor cause of the gridlock we experience on the way to Apapa Wharf”

Apapa is a very strategic economic destination for Lagos State, but more for the Federal Government, which rakes in hundreds of billions of naira revenue from the two ports, but has the worst road network. The two main routes to the port city are the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and the Ijora-Apapa Bridge which have turned death traps with ditches, gullies, cracks and broken joints. They are merely disasters waiting to happen.

Certainly, Apapa has become a metaphor for long traffic-induced suffering which is taking its toll on the port city. Apart from killing businesses in the area, residents are terribly hit by the degradation of their environment, which has drastically reduced the value of their properties by over 40 percent.

Jonathan Aderoju & Jeremiah Mbata