Lagos roads: Turning a nightmare into delight
May 30, 2017 12:07 AM
With the construction of 83.92 kilometres of roads in one year and another 99.147 kilometres in the pipeline, the Lagos State Government has left no one in doubt of its commitment to battling traffic congestion, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE
In just 18 months, Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has shown that he does not waste words.
Within that time, he has delivered on his promise to improve Lagos roads. “We are committed to seeking and funding substantial and comprehensive solutions to traffic challenges, we are ready to take tough recommendations you come out with,” he told participants at the Lagos Traffic Management and Transportation Summit on November 26, 2015.
Then, many could wager a bet, and even laugh at him. Reason: He didn’t look like one with the Midas touch.
Despite the huge investments by past administrations on deepening road infrastructure, and the enactment of the Lagos Traffic Law 2012, the gridlock remains intractable.
Traffic congestion was the norm across the city centre, the satellite towns and communities, making travel time hellish for residents. Lagos was practically swimming against the tide of sanity on the roads, leaving its economy tottering on the brink of collapse.
The ease of travelling using affordable, reliable and safe means, which are critical to the state transportation have taken a flight, and despite strict adherence to its strategic planning, transportation remained largely intractable. That was the dark cloud hovering over Ambode’s promise.
“We need to go back to the drawing board and agree on how our transportation sector can be effectively and efficiently operated to support the kind of trade and investment we are poised to continually attract,” he told the gathering.
He charged them to think out of the box and bring out innovative solutions that could help the state, adding that he had his mind set on delivery better institutional framework and quality transportation infrastructure that could support his vision of a smart city state.
“We owe it to the people to ensure that Lagos works for all. Tackling traffic is a good place to begin the significant change that the people expect from us,” he enthused at the event
Construction theatre
Between then and now, Lagos simply became a huge construction site with work going on everywhere. The government was busy planning, designing and implementing road infrastructure that can meet the future needs of the state.
Working under the mandate to develop motorable roads, and increase their capacity to ease traffic congestion and reduce travel time within the metropolis, the government embarked on a short-long-term remediation strategies with the short term being the regular maintenance of all existing roads, an assignemt discharged by the Lagos State Public Works Corporation (LSPWC), the medium being the sustainability of existing roads through rehabilitation, upgrading and expansion while the third is the expansion of highways and the construction of new bridges.
The strategy paid off handsomely, as the government completed 83.92 kilometres of roads spread within the state in one year.
At its ministerial press briefing last week, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, Temidayo Erinle, an engineer, said the roads were spread around the three Senatorial districts.
To complement these are another 99.147 kilometres in both the rural and urban areas of the state. The governor, according to Erinle, has approved the construction of more roads to ease traffic and improve the economy of the state.
Also completed in the year are five pedestrian bridges totalling 0.47 kilometres, aimed at improving the safety of pedestrians on the roads, while three others are ongoing at various locations in the state.
He listed some of the completed roads to include the Ajah Flyover/upgrading of the Freedom road to Admiralty Road in Eti-Osa Local Government, the flyover at Abule-Egba, Upgrading of strategic Arterial/Inner roads in Epe, Ayetoro Road in Alimosho, Ishefun, Camp Davies New market roads in Alimosho as well as the laybys and slip roads at Ojodu Berger.
Other completed pedestrian bridges listed are the Anthony-Gbagada foot bridge by TREM, the reconstruction of the Cement foot bridge, the rehabilitation of Mile 12 foot bridge, and the construction of the Steel Bridge at Ojota to complement the existing one that became insufficient due to the barrier mounted on the road.
The Ojodu Berger pedestrian bridge, which strides across the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Ogunnusi Road has a total span of 98m with illumination. It has 150m length of laybys on both sides of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, 500m length of retaining wall with varying height ranging from 3.5m to 7m to separate the infrastructure of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at grade with Ogunnusi, PWC and Olowora roads.
Other features of the projects include two multi-bay bus park/bus laybys on Ogunnusi Road with public convenience and a food court.
The upgraded roads in the projects are 650m slip road from Oando Petrol Station by Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to Omole/Olowora Junction, 700m Ogunnusi/Wakatiadura dual road from Kosoko Road junction to Lagos-Ibadan-Expressway, 250m PWC Road to Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Street lighting
and Signalisation
Also included in the projects are streetlighting on all the roads and the multibay bus parks with signalisation of all junctions.
The government said the project was expected to enhance the socio-economic development of both Lagos and other neighbouring states as it would reduce travel time on the road, man hour loss and ensure safety of lives, especially that of pedestrians with the construction of the flyover. It would also have a positive effect on the health of road users who would no longer be subjected to the stress associated with the road in the past.
The Public Works Corporation charged with repairing the roads, Erinle disclosed, worked on 807 roads, delivered over 532, aading that work was ongoing on the others.
Erinle said Ambode had awarded the contract for some roads in the state among which are: Rehabilitation/upgrading of Ebute-Igbogbo road Phase 2, The strategic arterial/inner roads in Epe Phase 2, the dualisation of Bisola Durosimi Etti/Hakeem Dickson in Lekki, the rehabilitation and maintenance of Lekki-Epe Expressway, rehabilitation of Alhaji Akinwumi Street, Mushin, upgrading of Obagun Avenue Mushin, dualisation of Irede Road in Amuwo-Odofin, construction of Aradagun-Iworo, Ajido Epeme Road with Bridges in Badagry.
The state is proposing to construct and rehabilitate important roads to serve as links for the citizens. Among them are the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Road, Igbogbo-Igbe Road in Ikorodu Local Government, Ilaje Road and Odunsi in Shomolu.
Others are Agric-Isawo-Konu-Arepo Road to link Lagos-Badagry Expressway and the Fourth Mainland Bridge, among others.
Fourth Mainland Bridge
A lot has been said about the government’s revocation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the consortium of contractors handling the Fourth Mainland Bridge.
The Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure, who oversees the Works and Infrastructure Ministry, Adebowale Akinsanya, said the government, had been disappointed at the pace of work and decided to cancel the contract.
Akinsanya said the state was shopping for replacements with bidding coming in from Japanese, Chinese, American and British conglomerates to fast-track the construction of the strategic bridge that would be the signature project that will redefine the state’s robust transportation strategies.
Akinsanya said contrary to speculations making the rounds, the government had not cancelled the Fourth Mainland Bridge, but was merely looking for new partners to actualise it with the least pain to residents.
Transportation and logistics experts contended that the state’s roads are quaking with congestion because they had failed to meet the state’s growth pattern. With 22 million population and home to three of every vehicle in Nigeria, Lagos, they argued, required more than the antiquated single-lane roads that were its lot until recently. That explained why efforts were aggressively made to expand the roads to two or three lanes, while efforts are made to construct more multiple lane highways to deflood traffic.
Outside the listed road delivered in the year, the government was able to tackle transportation crisis that had laid traffic along the Lekki-Epe Expressway prostate over the past decade. The removal of the entire roundabouts along the major junctions, residents said have brought sanity to the axis.
A source, who asked not to be named at Planet Projects, the contractor handling the junctions improvements along the axis, confirmed that the road failed principally because it failed to capture future developments along the axis, despite the rush by developers and the mushrooming of residential estates in the area.
He said the road, which was built to cater for 50,000 vehicles daily had hit 750,000 vehicles, resulting in the congestion. “What the removal of the roundabouts have done is to further expand the roads, thereby improving its carriage capacity,” the source said.
An indigenous contractor, who also requested not to be mentioned, said much of the traffic crisis in the state could be addressed with adequate signalisation and signages.
Harping on the need for Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS), to be incorporated into the transportation architecture of the state, the contractor said with ITS, road users, especially motorists, would make better use of the roads with the least encumberance. The source said Lagos is big enough to adopt the best international practices added that much could be achieved with intelligent redistribution of traffic than by constructing bridges.
Another innovation that has changed the narratives of traffic in the state is the introduction of laybys. With its introcution at Iyana-Oworonsoki, travel time from Lagos Island to the mainland on the Third Mainland Bridge, which used to chalk a minimum of two hours before, had been reduced to 45 minutes, leading to its introduction on the inward Island carriageway.
The introductions of the laybys and slip roads, which have also been applied to Ojodu Berger with maximum impact on decongestion of the roads have started in Ketu, to deflood also traffic on the Ketu-Ikorodu BRT corridor.
The pace of developments in the state in the past year seemed to have earned Ambode a soft spot in the hearts of his people. For him, there is no slow down until traffic congestion is tamed.
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