Chukwuma Okparaocha reports that in spite of the over N1 billion expended on repairing the Third Mainland Bridge which was re-opened for public use last week, driving on the bridge is still not a smooth experience.
BUILT in the 1980's by Julius Berger and commissioned in 1990 by General Ibrahim Babangida, the Third Mainland Bridge is the longest of the three bridges connecting Lagos Island to the mainland, the other two being the Eko and Carter bridges.
Believed to be the longest bridge in Africa, the Third Mainland Bridge, which measures about 11.8km in length, starts from Oworonshoki which is linked to the Apapa-Oshodi express way and Lagos-Ibadan express way. It ends at the Adeniji Adele Interchange on Lagos Island, though there is also a link midway through the bridge that leads to the Herbert Macaulay Way, Yaba.
Recently, the contract sum of N1,055,477,608.16 was awarded by the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Works, for the rehabilitation of the bridge, which was mainly the repair of eight expansion joints.
It is no longer news that the project, which was contracted to construction giant, Messrs Borini Prono Company of Nigeria Ltd, was declared complete and successful last week, while the bridge itself was fully re-opened for public use.
Though grateful for taking the initiative to work on the bridge promptly so as to guarantee safety of lives and properties, many Lagosians are still disillusioned as to why such a huge sum of money was spent on the repair of eight expansion joints only, when many portions of the bridge are equally calling for government's attention.
Nigerian Tribune, which moved round the entire bridge a couple of days after it was declared fully open for traffic, noticed that many portions of the bridge still have their railings either missing outright, or bent and twisted in some way.
A drive on the bridge would also reveal that many streetlight poles, like the railings, are also either missing or bent.
Perhaps more worrisome is the journey on the bridge itself which is often interrupted by a series of unhealthy sounds made as result of pockets of small potholes that have started to develop in various portions of the bridge, although numerous patched sections also contribute to the bumpy feeling a driver is bound to experience on the bridge.
For quite a while, there has been clamour from various quarters including the media calling the attention of the Federal Government to the need to restore the missing railings which are too many to count. There have also been calls for missing streetlight poles to be replaced and faulty ones repaired. Sadly, however, such calls seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
At the Iyana Oworo end of the bridge, towards Lagos Island, a large number of the railings are gone, a development which, it was gathered did not just occur. This unwholesome development is a common phenomenon in various other sections of the bridge, as it is almost impossible to drive for five minutes without one spotting a section with at least a missing railing.
Needless to say, this development predisposes motorists and even pedestrians to a certain level of risk of falling into the lagoon, since railings, according to experts, are meant to serve the primary role of protecting bridge users, just as they also act as additional braces and source of support and strength to any bridge.
“The implication of this is that when railings disappear, bridge users are exposed to a certain degree of risk, and such a bridge itself loses a fraction of its support and strength. Railings are not just there for aesthetic reasons, they are a form of support, therefore, lost railings could be translated to mean deterioration has started to set in on such a bridge,” a civil engineer in one of the nation's tertiary institutions, who wouldn't want his identity revealed, disclosed in a telephone chat with Nigerian Tribune.
Although, our correspondent, who drove round the bridge in broad day light, could not verify the number of streetlights that are not functioning, it was however clear that not less than seven streetlight poles were either totally missing or badly bent.
Just like with the case of the missing railings, it is almost impossible to drive for a few minutes without running into pockets of potholes majority of which are in their 'infancy' stage. Such a drive would easily create the sort of sensation one often experiences when travelling on any of the average Nigerian roads, many of which have been dubbed 'death traps.'
Similarly, scattered all over both lanes of the Third Mainland Bridge are numerous patched portions, which one can easily decipher to have been portions previously with developing potholes but which have been patched with asphalt by road maintenance agencies.
All these, according to general opinion boils down to the fact that it is not yet time for the government to bring in the sails over the Third Mainland Bridge project, though the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, gave a glimmer of hope in this regard, when he remarked that the government would continue to carry on maintenance works on the bridge.
“We will continue to carry out routine maintenance of the bridge as well as other bridges across the country,” he had declared.
“Based on the importance of this facility to everyone, including non-Lagosians, I thought the Federal Government would also place emphasis on providing streetlights on that bridge through which thousands of people commute daily to the nation's economic nerve centre.
“Without functional streetlights robbery attacks on that bridge at night might be enhanced. Any motorist whose vehicle breaks down on the bridge stands a great chance and risk of being robbed, maimed or even killed under the cover of darkness,” a Lagos resident, who identified herself as Rukayat Badmus noted in a chat with Nigerian Tribune.
The Tribune
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