FG to Reopen Third Mainland Bridge on Thursday Next Week

Bennett Oghifo

Lagos residents will heave a sigh of relief on Thursday, next week, when the federal government reopens all lanes and exit points of the Third Mainland Bridge.

Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi, while inspecting the bridge, accompanied by the Senate Committee on works, gave a seven-day deadline for the reopening, stating that close circuit television would be installed at strategic points to monitor the activities of illegal sand mining under the bridge.

Umahi said, “When the lane marking is over, we will open the bridge but formally it will be commissioned by Mr. President when he is going to flag off the coastal road. So we will combine it.

“The most important thing is the lane marking. The moment the lane marking is done we open the road unofficially. In seven days Nigerians will be able to ply this road.

“We also discovered that there is a need to put CCTV both on top of the bridge and under the bridge and we don’t want to put CCTV that is powered by diesel generator so we are going to be procuring solar generator and we are putting CCTV all through the 11.8 kilometers and we are going to put CCTV under the deck to watch the illegal mining of the sand which is a problem we have encountered as far as the integrity of the pipes that were driven by skin friction is concerned and so tomorrow when we go there we will look at it.”

He added: “The bridge before now and over the years and administrations, was being maintained by overlaying asphalt upon asphalt on top of the concrete decks and the dead loads designed for the concrete deck is just two inches of asphalt.

“So over the years we have had asphalts overlay between 10 cm to 30 cm and so it shot dead weight on the bridge. Let me say that part of this bridge has undergone some measure of depletion. But we have removed the dead weight. So when we came on board Mr. President went through this bridge and he directed for immediate rehabilitation of the bridge. So we started with a contract of milling just two inches.

“We thought it was two inches that had failed and so we procured the bridge as follows: milling of two inches asphalt, 8 lanes of 11.8 kms and replacing it, you know, changing of 90 percent of the expansion joints, painting the parapet capes, changing all the electric poles and changing them to solar poles that was the initial scope.”

Speaking further, the Minister said: “But then the additional scope increased. At the median, we are putting a single pole at 30, 30 meters but we are making it to have two solar panels and then at the side of the bridge we are also putting another electric pole.

“So this is a totally new introduction. So what we had hitherto day one was at the middle of the median. And then we discovered that the ramps were not factored and so we have factored the ramps to have solar lights on them and that has increased the cost of the project.

“So we started with a contract of milling just two inches.

“But then the additional scope increased. At the median, we are putting a single pole at 30, 30 meters but we are making it to have two solar panels and then at the side of the bridge we are also putting another electric pole.

“We have also discovered that we needed to mill between 10 cm and 30 cm and we looked at it within the text and we discovered that we were still at the point of risking the bridge if we allowed just to mill two inches so we milled everything and that cost another additional job.”

The federal government had enforced partial closure of the bridge and redirected traffic to ensure comprehensive rehabilitation of the bridge for more than three months.