The Lagos State Government has announced that the Third Mainland Bridge would be fully opened to vehicular traffic in February 2021.
This follows the shutdown of the bridge on July 24, 2020, by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing for maintenance work.
According to a report from Punch, while making the disclosure on Friday, the Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Frederic Oladeinde, noted that the completion date for the rehabilitation of the bridge had to be moved forward from January 2021 to February due to the effect of the #EndSARS protests.
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What the Lagos State Commissioner is saying
Oladeinde said, “It was supposed to be January but it is now February 2021. It has been moved by a month. The first phase is finished, the second phase has started.”
While speaking on the outlook of transportation for Lagos State, the commissioner said the state was trying to integrate all transport modes into a card that can be utilized by residents.
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He said, “The government is going ahead with the rail. We are still constructing the blue line and we have reached an advanced stage with the red line which would soon commence. “
“We are ramping up water transport, we are connecting it with the Bus Reform, making sure that all our transport modes are integrated. We are extending the common ticketing system which we currently use on the Bus Rapid Transit System to the waterways and when the rail comes on board, we will extend it to the rail as well.
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“Basically, people will have a card that can be used over various modes of transport,’’ he added.
Going further, Oladeinde sought private sector investment to boost water transport, adding that on the part of the Lagos state government, plans had been concluded to expand the Lagos Ferry Services Company fleet.
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What you should know
- The Federal Government had announced that the closure of the Third Mainland bridge for a period of 6 months for maintenance works. Construction was scheduled to be done in two phases, three months on each carriageway.
- The 11.8km bridge which had gone through a series of rehabilitation works was last closed for repairs in August 2018 for 3 days of investigative maintenance check.
