The Minister of Works, Sen. Dave Umahi, has reiterated that bridges in Lagos State will not be closed without a thorough analysis and putting in place certain measures.
Umahi gave the assurance while inspecting the Marine Bridge in Lagos on Wednesday.
Marine Bridge, Lagos, is also known as Ijora-Marine-Apapa Link Bridge. The bridge is about two kilometres in length.
Umahi said. “I promised Lagosians and Nigerians that, for any bridge to get closed in Lagos, we have to come here and analyse it.”
He said the Federal Government would need to close the Marine Bridge for repairs due to the magnitude of work to be done on it.
‘‘We are giving approval for the Lagos controller to close the bridge, but we must do the following,” he said.
Umahi said that the government must announce the date that the bridge would be closed and deploy the method statement – what it intended to do and achieve.
The minister said that the government must provide the drawing of the traffic diversion and tell the public where the traffic would be diverted to.
According to him, lifting the span of the bridge to change the bearings cannot be achieved by partially closing the bridge.
“It is a 21-day job, but we are going to see if we can shorten it.
“If the Marine Bridge repair work was just about the surface or structural elements on top, we wouldn’t have to close it because it is painful to have any of the routes in Lagos closed.
“This one entails lifting of the entire span to change the bearings. A bearing is like a shock absorber.
“If it weren’t that serious, we wouldn’t be advocating to close the bridge,” the minister explained.
Umahi also said that closure of any bridge in Lagos would require live discussions with the state residents.
“Julius Berger will be there, FERMA will be there, the controller and engineers will be there.
“We will provide phone numbers that the public can call, send text messages and get replies.
“We respect Lagosians, we respect Nigerians,” Umahi said.
He praised Julius Berger Plc., which is handling the project and Eko Bridge rehabilitation, for efforts.
“I have had to climb a height of over 30 metres to look at what they are doing at Eko Bridge,” he said.