TheCable

The federal government says it has commenced the construction of the 700km Lagos-Calabar coastal highway.

David Umahi, minister of works, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, issued by Orji Uchenna, his special adviser on media, in Abuja.

He said the contractor began the work after the official handover of the first phase of the project, made up of 47.47 kilometres of dual carriageway, to Hitech Construction Company Ltd.

He commended the construction company for being reputable for quality and speedy delivery of jobs, acknowledging their efforts in starting work immediately after the contract is awarded.

“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,” Umahi was quoted as saying.

“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 kilometres of section one of the phase.”

FG TO CARRY OUT COMPREHENSIVE REHABILITATION OF BRIDGES

According to the statement, the minister visited project sites at the Queen’s Drive Ikoyi, Third Mainland Bridge top deck, the underwater, the Eko Bridge, and the Carter Bridge.

He expressed the determination of the federal government to carry out a comprehensive rehabilitation of the bridges which he said were critical links between the Mainland and the Island of Lagos.

“At the Third 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. That is a dual carriageway, including the ramps, and it has been done by CCECC,” the minister said.

“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 asphalting.

“But that is not all our commitment there. We are installing the guardrails, we are replacing the lights with solar lights, we are going to put some decorative lights too, and then we are going to put CCTV cameras 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, so we have gotten 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 Eko Bridge by Buildwell; so this one is not a threat to us at all.”

Umahi emphasised the need for contractors handling federal government projects to deliver in record time, noting that the government will not allow delays or slow pace once mobilisation has taken place.

On September 23, 2023, Umahi unveiled plans for the construction of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway.