The partitioning of the Lagos/Ibadan expressway due to construction has sparked public outcry, especially among communities along the axis. Stakeholders warn of dire consequences obstruction poses to commuters, OKWY IROEGBU CHIKEZIE reports.
Development comes with discomfort and pains. However, when such discomfort becomes unbearable, then the public or supposed beneficiaries are bound to complain.
This is the scenario playing out along the Lagos-Shagamu section of the Lagos/Ibadan expressway under rehabilitation. This stretch, that is less than 50 kilometres, is being handled by Julius Berger Nigeria Limited. Since the commencement of the work, residents along the axis, and commuters have had no respite as they spend endless hours on the road.
For instance, commuting between the Sagamu Interchange and the Lagos Secretariat, has become a nightmare. Daily, people groan under traffic snarl caused by the construction. It taks now an average of two hours for a journey that should be less than 25 minutes. On some bad days, travellers have had to spend the night in the short distance.
Yet, commuters and residents along the axis have not ceased to wonder why for over three years, they should continue to live with the pains of development. They are quick to blame the contractors for this development.
At several points, the roads are either partitioned or diverted, thereby narrowing the road to accommodate fewer vehicles. This is why commuters wonder why the construction company cannot organise their activities and finish a portion before moving to another site. At almost every bus stop a road is narrowed and further divided to the discomfort of the residents.
“This thing the construction company is doing in Nigeria cannot happen elsewhere. They are taking the lives of the people for a ride. How can people leave their homes every day before 4am to avoid traffic snarl and cannot get to their offices and businesses places in three hours a journey of otherwise 30 minutes and getting home by 12am? This is not healthy, our leaders are not caring, they treat us as something the cat just brought in. They prefer to protect the interest of foreigners against their people. This is what you hear every day as you commute in a public transport, in your own car or over airwaves,” an angry commuter who simply identified herself as Toyin, lamented.
The complaints are not that the government is rehabilitating the road that has become almost a cash cow for every administration, but the attitude of Julius Berger. They partition the road at will. As you drive through in the mornings or back from your business or work, pray that no truck breaks down, most times it will take eternity to be removed. Towing vehicles and trucks clauses are embedded in such contract and even laybys around communities to make for smooth commute even after a vehicle break down.
The Federal Government and the construction giant have been shifting the goal posts for the completion of the project. The Controller of Works, Lagos, Olukayode Popola in an interview with The Nation appealed to commuters to be patient with the contractor, stressing that the July 2022 completion date was sacrosanct.
He said if the contract was not executed, there is a clause in the agreement that the contractor would not get paid. He said: “The bridge and earth work is funded by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA). They pay you as you work. We plead with the public. There is no way the construction company will not contract and partitions portions of the road at a point or block some areas. Now they are under pressure to deliver from the Minister of Works & Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola. That is why they are at every point on the highway. We cannot afford to work at a particular point or bus stop before going to the next.”
Asked why they don’t work at night to make for the lost or down times, he said the security situation in the country does not support such a venture. Responding to the twin issues of vehicles’ break down and traffic delays, he defended Julius Berger, adding that its officials remove broken down vehicles on the road but when there were more than one, it became a challenge to get to the points as the roads are narrowed.
Late last year, Fashola appealed for patience, orderliness and the cooperation of motorists as rehabilitation and reconstruction on the expressway progressed.
Julius Berger resumed work after leaving the site for over 12 months, due to non-payment for work done by the previous administration.
But first on the strength of assurances that they would be paid and eventually after settled their outstanding bills by the Federal Government, the contractor returned to site.
To achieve this, one half of the Lagos-bound section of the bridge was blocked to traffic with the use of median crash barriers which allow only two normal vehicles to pass at the same time.
However, as some articulated vehicles either move slowly or break down, traffic backlog developed, which resulted in chaotic traffic when some motorists attempt to overtake even within the narrow space.
Fashola urged them to bear with the Federal Government and contractors, adding that the temporary discomfort would lead to a safer and smoother motoring experience when the reconstruction was completed.
According to the minister, in view of the traffic experience of some few weeks, the contracting firm has been working to adjust the barriers backwards to make more room for traffic to move faster, adding that in collaboration with other stakeholders, work was ongoing on the repairs of an alternative route to which smaller vehicles will be diverted.
The minister urged the contractors to accommodate the expected high volume of traffic from the events.
”Start calibrating your activities to prepare to take in that traffic, it will come, but the big one will come I think sometime in the end of the year when everybody is moving back from home. The target is to make that experience better than last year’s,” Fashola said.
While promising to take the issue of safety further with the management of the companies handling the rehabilitation, the minister underscored the steps that must be taken to ensure safety.
“I need to see more safety signs, if you have to put reflective stickers especially for night time and lighting, please do so. We just want to reduce first, the number of casualties and accidents on the road, especially at night and during the day as well, and we want to see how this can translate to better motoring experience from the eid festival,” he said.
Pointing out that some of the constraints faced by the contractors, Fashola warned occupiers of rights of way along federal highways to quit as the government was set to retake the right of ways across the country.
Last November, Fashola directed trailers parking indiscriminately in the Ogere section of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to vacate the area to give way for the construction.
The minister, who inspected the road from Lagos, gave the directive during a town hall meeting with stakeholders at Ogere.
”My appeal to you (articulated vehicles) is for you to the leave the road immediately,” he said. Fashola asked the task force on traffic laws newly constituted by Ogun State government to enforce the directive, noting that parking on the highway was a violation of the nation’s traffic laws.
He said trucking and trailer were businesses and operators were supposed to provide parking spaces for their fleet, adding that the government’s construction of truck parks was only to assist them.
He frowned at road abuses by truck drivers who pour diesel and petrol on the highway, causing quick road degeneration. He listed projects funded by the Presidential Intervention Funds to include the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, a major artery connecting Southwest to other regions.
The minister said the contractors were back to site on the projects, adding that the Buhari government was determined to complete all ongoing constructions in spite of dwindling oil revenue reducing the nation’s earnings.
Julius Berger and RCC, contractors handling sections one and two of the expressways, made slide presentations on how high traffic volume and new settlements on the highway slowed construction.
They said 400,000 vehicles plied the road daily and that 3,000 of them per hour.