TheCable

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos state, says the construction of the long-anticipated Fourth Mainland Bridge will begin in April.

Speaking on transportation during a media chat with journalists on Thursday in Lagos, Sanwo-Olu disclosed that there were funding issues which delayed the project.

He explained that the private sector investors had been demanding terms and conditions that were unachievable.

“We started a long process, that process has taken over three years. There is extensive study, biometrics, data metrics and we have preferred bidders that we wanted to work with but what we were seeing in the last two years, is the dynamics of funding has changed globally,” he said

“The kind of things they are asking of us are things that we know we cannot give of them. They are asking us to get a sovereign guarantee. Meaning that we need to go and sit with the federal government and the federal government needs to go to the National Assembly.

“Technically what it means is that federal government will be guaranteeing that and they will not do it because it’s not in their bid so there is no point deceiving ourselves that that is going to happen.

“By the way, we also don’t even want the dollar money. We want it local. Whatever it is, It’s a local transaction. It’s a local bridge and we will have to fund it locally.”

Sanwo-Olu further said the government is working with the investors to reach an agreement on the project by reducing the number of lanes or the number of levels of bridges.

“So on our own, what we have done is that we are working with them and we are walking back. We have done extensive redesigning, creative redesigning, you know, so there are some places where you probably want to do eight lanes. Let’s do four,” he said.

“There’s someplace where you want to do three levels of bridges, let’s do one, you know, but it doesn’t take away the fact that fourth mainland bridge, we will do it.”

The governor, however, reiterated his commitment to begin the construction of the Fourth Mainland Bridge before the end of April 2024, despite the challenges that have arisen in securing funding for the project.

Meanwhile, on December 30, 2022, the Lagos state government announced CCECC-CRCCIG Consortium as the preferred bidder for the construction of the Fourth Mainland Bridge.

The project, which is a proposed PPP transport infrastructure development, will comprise the construction and operation of a greenfield tolled road and bridge with a design speed of 120 kilometres per hour, including the development of adjacent real estate.