The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has revealed that the construction of the Opebi-Mende-Ojota Link Bridge will be completed and ready for use by the third quarter of 2024.
Sanwo-Olu disclosed this during an inspection of the bridge on Tuesday.
The governor said that the construction of the Opebi-Ojota link bridge which started over a year ago had reached 65 per cent completion.
The bridge, which is being constructed by Julius Berger, will have provisions for cycling and ample pedestrian walkway, the governor revealed.
- ”I’m impressed with the level of work that Messrs Julius Berger has done here. We came here last year, I think about 11 months ago, in January or so, or February, and this bridge was not in existence at that time.
- “There was barely anything. I’m happy with the level of work that we have seen thus far.
- ”We are still on track with the completion. We are still hoping that by the second quarter of next year, towards the third quarter, we should finish this entire road construction, so that it can be handed over to the residents and also can be made available.
- ”There is still going to be a bit of furniture that you are going to see on this bridge. Eventually, it will look like another iconic bridge in Lagos, which will be similar to what we have in the Lekki axis.
- ”As you can see, there is enough room for cycling, there is enough room for pedestrians walking on the road. We are going to see a total life change,” Sanwo-Olu said.
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Sanwo-Olu stated that the ample pedestrian walkway is intended to encourage people who would want to exercise by the bridge to do so, as well as allow people to move freely on the bridge.
He also said that the bridge was intended to solve a major traffic problem and provide alternative routes for Lagos residents.
- “People that are commuting from Toyin, Allen, Opebi, how can they access the Ojota bridge? People from Maryland, how can they go on straight into Ikeja?
- “So, it will solve a lot of the alternative problems that we have, either on Kudirat Abiola road, even as far as going towards Alausa and it also try to solve the major traffic issues we have on Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way,” Sanwo-Olu explained.
Gov. Sanwo-Olu pointed out that the Opebi-Ojota link bridge was situated in a very tough terrain. This, he said, made the project manager, Julius Berger, do a 20-metre excavation to ensure that a solid bridge is built.
- “The soil texture is really bad. In fact, the project manager, Julius Berger, says they have to do excavation of over 20 metres in some places so that they can preserve the land and they can work seamlessly.
- “What this has opened up to is that this is an economic development and we are changing the face of traffic management, we are changing the face of commuting in Lagos and we are changing the face of access to modern infrastructure roads and development,” he said.
