Eko bridge Contractor dashes hope of motorists, says repair to end June 2023

The contractors handling the repair work of Eko Bridge, Buildwell Plants and Equipment Industries, on Thursday, raised fresh concerns among motorists, saying that the reopening of the bridge may not come any time earlier than May/June 2023.

This has dashed motorists’ expectations that the bridge which has been closed since March 2022 will no longer be reopened in December this year as earlier promised by the federal government.

The implication of that is the continuous daily hardship being experienced by motorists on the bridge for the last seven months will continue in which case motorists have either to endure more stress or take alternative routes and follow longer travel time to their destinations.

To explain the new reality, George Mohanna, Director of Construction at Buildwell Plants and Equipment Industries, noted that the completion of the repair works was tied to the availability of bridge components.

Mohanna, who spoke during an inspection of the Bridge by Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Works and Housing, disclosed that the initial components imported for the bridge repair were deployed for emergency purposes.

The first of such purposes, he said, was Agbonpon Bridge after the fire incident on it in March this year. The second is the Ijora-Olopa axis of the bridge after the latest fire outbreak that occurred last week.
“We will see how to fast-track importation of bridge components,” Mohanna assured.

Responding, Fashola, revealed that the federal government was reaching out to the Lagos State government on modalities to evacuate all illegal occupants operating under the bridges in the state.

“We are reaching out to the Lagos State government, telling them that they have our support,” Fashola, said, lamenting that the money that could have been deployed to provide additional infrastructure for Lagos was now being deployed for the emergency repairs of the bridge.

The minister warned Lagosians to stop trading under the bridges as such action is responsible for the collective pains currently being experienced across the state with the closure of the bridge.

“Under the bridges are not marketplaces. When we shut the bridge, it was because we could no longer take the risk,” Fashola said.