The Minister of Public Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has revealed that the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) stay-at-home order played a significant role in the apparent delay in the completion of the Second Bridge over Niger project.
Fashola made it known while appearing on a Channels Television show, Sunrise Daily, on Wednesday, December 21, 2022.
The minister had previously ensured that the bridge would be completed before the end of 2022 and would be open for use during the Christmas season.
Contractors could not work on Mondays
- Fashola on the challenges facing the bridge said: “These dates keep changing and people need to remember that on the East Side, our contractors have not been able to work on Mondays for almost two years and that has affected the completion date.
- “While construction workers work on Saturdays, a loss of 52 days cannot easily be made up in construction work.”
The minister listed other challenges that contributed to the lost days to include the relocation of the transmission lines connecting the east to the west across the Niger River, as well as the hurdle that affected the early completion of the bridge within the time stipulated above.
The bridge is expected to be completed in May 2023
Talking about completing the last 4km section of the road in 4 months, Mr Fashola said that the construction is taking place in a swamp and as such there is a great need for dredging and sandfilling, a process that , according to him, it cannot be accelerated.
He stressed that the reason the ministry and its contractors have made great progress on the highway so far is because they have employed the use of pre-cast vertical drains which speed settlement and drainage and as such workers can start to build faster than would normally have been expected. .
However, Fashola assured Nigerians that the bridge will be completed before President Muhammadu Buhari’s term ends in May 2023, adding that tolls will inevitably be collected to ensure it stands to serve Nigerians for many years.
to catch
- The Second Niger Bridge is a Federal Government project that has cost around N206 billion.
- The 1.6 km long bridge is equipped with other ancillary infrastructure, including a 10.3 km expressway, the Owerri interchange, and a toll station, all in the town of Obosi.
- The bridge was conceived under the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo, but undertaken by President Muhammadu Buhari.
- The bridge is being built over the Niger River in Nigeria and will stretch from Asaba to Onitsha.
- The Federal Government opened about a week ago the Second Bridge of Niger for use for a period of one month over Christmas. The bridge is expected to be closed on January 15, 2023 for completion of the project.