Day 1 - Day 2: 10 AM - 6 PM | Day 3: 10 AM - 5 PM
Landmark Centre, Lagos, Nigeria
The Federal Government has announced the commencement of construction work on the 700km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, spanning 9 States with two spurs leading to the Northern States.
Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, announced this during the official handover of the first phase of the project, made up of 47.47 kilometers dual carriageway, to Hitech Construction Company Ltd, and which is to be constructed in concrete pavement.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Special Adviser (Media), to the Minister, Hon. Orji Uchenna Orji, in Abuja, late on Thursday.
According to him, the Minister who was in company with the Federal Ministry of Works’ Controller in charge of Lagos State, Engr. (Mrs) O. I. Kesha, emphasised the need for all contractors handling Federal Government’s road projects to deliver within a record time, noting that the government would not allow variation arising from delays or slow pace of work once mobilization had been done.
Orji quoted the minister as commending Hitech Construction Company Nigeria Ltd for being reputable for quality and speedy delivery of jobs.
The minister he said, acknowledged their efforts in starting work immediately after the contract was awarded.
He quoted Umahi as saying,”They have completed some filling of 1.3 kilometer from the day the project was awarded to them. It shows the speed they are going to deploy to this project.
“Within a couple of weeks, we awarded the project to them, they mobilized a lot of dredging equipment, and you can see that they have recovered 1.3 kilometer of section one of the phase.”
Orji said the Minister who also visited project sites at the Queen’s Drive Ikoyi, the Third Mainland bridge top deck, the under water, the Eddo bridge, the Eko bridge and Carter bridge expressed the determination of the Federal Government to carry out a comprehensive rehabilitation of the bridges which he said are critical links between the Mainland and the Island of Lagos, the economic hub of the country.
Quoting the minister further, statement read, “These repairs are expected to cover not only the top of the bridge but also the under bridge works.
“At the Third Mainland bridge, we have three or four critical elements to be rehabilitated. The first one is the deck, and the deck is about 11 kilometers two. That is dual carriageway, including the ramps, and it has been done by CCECC.
“They have done very beautiful jobs, but we have not concluded. Before the end of March, we’ll be concluding the asphalt milling and the reasphalting.
Umahi added , “But that is not all our commitment there. We are installing the guardrails, we are replacing the lights with solar light, we are going to put some decorative lights too, and then we are going to put CCTV camera both on top and under the bridge to check insecurity and illegal mining of sand, which is causing scouring on the piles and the pipe bits.
“The second job is that some sections of the slab are deflected, and so what we have done is to get an expert to understudy the level of deflection.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, says the Bola Tinubu administration has turned Abuja into a construction site.
Wike stated this when the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Rochard Montgomery, visited him in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said that construction and other development activities had come to a halt in Abuja prior to the Tinubu-led government.
“Before now, it does appear that there were no activities in Abuja, with many residents complaining that the city is so docilenand nothing was happening."
“However, since we came on board, you can see that activities have come up in terms of infrastructure, particularly road infrastructure."
“We can proudly say that we have turned Abuja to a construction site." he said.
As part of its inter-modal transport system, Lagos State Government has promised to construct a new international Airport at Lekki Epe corridor of the State in the next one or two years.
When completed, the Airport will accommodate about 350 Aircrafts at a time and expected to take care of about 5 million travelers annually.
The Lekki-Epe residents in the State would not have to make a journey to Ikeja to take flights, according to the State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotoso in an interview with state House correspondents at Alausa, Ikeja.
He said, “The Airport is not going to take time, it is expected to be finished in about a year or two and that is going to be on Lekki Epe corridor and it’s going to be an international Airport, that can accommodate about 350 Aircraft at a time. It’s going to take care of about 5 million travelers and we are already talking to investors, because it’s not what the state can fund from its balance sheet.
“So everything that needs to be done by the Airport and every other iconic projects that I have spoken of, like Food and Logistics Hub, 4th Mainland Bridge are currently on the table
“We are talking to investors from all over the world to come and take up these projects and they have seen that Lagos is where the investment destination is, the biggest in Africa if you look at the Foreign Direct Investment, there is no state that march Lagos and if you talk about foreign direct investment coming into Nigeria, when you look at Africa as a whole, Lagos contributes about 80 percent of the one that is coming into Nigeria,” the Commissioner stated.
(Source: Champion Newspapers Ltd.)
