FG to spend N4billion to rehabilitate 3rd mainland bridge – Finance Minister

Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Dr. Zainab Ahmed, said a sum of N4 billion will be expended to undertake the emergency rehabilitation and maintenance of the third mainland bridge in Lagos.

This was disclosed at the formal virtual public presentation of the 2021 budget by the Minister.

Other selected projects to be undertaken include over N54 billion to be expended for the construction & renovation of various Bridge projects nationwide, as well as N500m counterpart funding for construction of a joint border bridge at Mfum/Ekok under the Nigeria/Cameroun International highway and transport facilitation programme.

Also, the construction and rehabilitation of roads in every geo-political zone in Nigeria, which is expected to gulp over N168 billion, include:

• Counterpart Funding for the dualization of Makurdi – Enugu Road; Akwanga – Jos – Bauchi – Gombe Road.
• Reconstruction of the Outstanding Sections of Benin – Ofosu – Ore – Ajebandele – Shagamu Expressway of Ilorin – Jebba – Mokwa/Bokani Junction Road; Ilorin-Kabba-Obajana Junction to Benin; Suleja-Minna Road, Niger State.
• Construction of Bodo – Bonny Road; rehabilitation of Yola-Hong-Mubi Road; rehabilitation Of Nguru-Gashua-Bayamari Road; 9th Mile-Enugu-Port Harcourt; dual Carriageway for 9th-mile bypass; upgrading and rehabilitation of Keffi – Akwanga – Lafia Road Project; rehabilitation of Zaria-Funtua-Gusau-Sokoto-Birnin Kebbi.

Why this matters

• The Third Mainland Bridge is one of the most important bridges in Nigeria linking the mainland Lagos to Lagos Island facilitating trade and commerce in Nigeria’s economic capital.
• The daily traffic on the bridge is heavy during the mornings coming to the island and in the evenings going back to the mainland, thus requires proper maintenance for the safety of persons/commuters.

What you should know

• Of all the bridges in Lagos, the Third Mainland Bridge is by far the biggest and busiest – 11.8km of grey concrete that snakes its way over the Atlantic from one end of the city to the other.
• The Third Mainland Bridge was built in 1990 for a price tag of $1billion and was once the Africa’s longest bridge, but has since been supplanted by Cairo’s 6th October Bridge.
• The bridge was built to alleviate Lagos’s chaotic traffic congestion problem which forced the city to adopt radical policies to regulate traffic on the two existing bridges.
• When it was built, the bridge handled over 1,000 cars a day but could handle over 70,000 in a straight traffic flow on daily basis.