Ayodele Olalere
The perennial traffic which has been witnessed across Lagos State worsened on Wednesday following the decision of the Federal Ministry of Works and the Lagos State government to partially close the Eko Bridge for repairs.
The bridge, which was closed from the Alaka end of the bridge inwards Island resulted in serious traffic extending up to the Fadeyi bus stop, and affected inward Surulere.
While addressing journalists in the early hours of Wednesday, Lagos State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the partial closure was necessary so as to carry out repairs on defective parts and joints of the bridge which was built in 1976 but has not been maintained since then.
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“You can see there are spaces in the expansion joints. These are things we need to see how quickly they can be fixed. Our contractors are the original builder of the bridge so its for us to take full precautionary methods that is why we don’t want to take chances.
These are bridges not made to have trucks and containers packed on them. They are not designed for such usage,” the governor said.
” We will go back with Ministry of Transportation and do impact assessment and see where we can advise commuters to move to and provide adequate alternative routes. When we feel it’s safe to open it temporarily or fully, we will communicate,” he added.
The governor further works are ongoing to maintain other defective bridges across the state and urged Lagosians to obey traffic rules so as to avoid too much congestion.
” Work is ongoing on Independence bridge, Falomo bridge, and Surulere bridge. There are also plans to work on the third mainland bridge and anywhere in the world where works like this are done, there is always diversion. Lagos is a massive city that is why alternative means of transportation are provided. We have traffic enforcement agency and if people can obey traffic officers and be patient, they can plan their journey ahead. We will.continue to inform people on traffic situation. It will not be solved overnight. So people should obey traffic rules, it will ease movements on the road,” Sanwo-Olu said.