Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The federal government has commenced the construction of the 700km Lagos- Calabar Coastal Highway, spanning nine states, with two spurs leading to the Northern states.
Minister of Works, David Umahi, during the official handover of the first phase of the project, made up of 47.47 kilometres dual carriageway to Hitech Construction Company Ltd, said the project will be constructed with concrete pavement.
In company with the Federal Ministry of Works’ Controller in charge of Lagos State, Olukorede Kesha, Umahi emphasised the need for all contractors handling federal government road projects to deliver within record time.
A statement by his spokesman, Uchenna Orji, quoted Umahi as noting that the government would not allow variation arising from delays or slow pace of work once mobilisation had been done.
He, 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:” They have completed some filling of 1.3 kilometres from the day the project was awarded to them. It shows the speed they are going to deploy to this project. Within a couple of weeks, we awarded the project to them, they mobilised a lot of dredging equipment, and you can see that they have recovered 1.3 kilometre of section one of the phase.”
The minister who also visited project sites at the Queen’s Drive Ikoyi, the 3rd Mainland bridge top deck, the underwater, the Iddo bridge, the Eko bridge and Carter bridge expressed the determination of the federal government to carry out a comprehensive rehabilitation of the bridges which he said are critical links between the mainland and the island in Lagos.
The repairs , he said, are expected to cover not only the top of the bridge but also the under bridge works.
He said: ” At the 3rd Mainland bridge, we have three or four critical elements to be rehabilitated. The first one is the deck, and the deck is about 11 kilometres × two. That is dual carriageway, including the ramps, and it has been done by CCECC.
“They have done very beautiful jobs, but we have not concluded. Before the end of March, we’ll be concluding the asphalt milling and the re-asphalting. 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 stated.
He commended what Julius Berger Nigeria Ltd is doing already, which is the restoration of deteriorated piers and caps.
Earlier in their respective remarks, the State Controller, Federal Ministry of Works and the representatives of Hitech Construction Nigeria Ltd, Julius Berger Nigeria Ltd, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation Ltd, and Buildwell Nigeria Ltd assured of their commitment to timely completion of the projects.
