3rd Mainland Bridge To Be Reopened Today

At long last, the wait is over!!!

Finally, the Federal Government will today (Tuesday) reopen the Third Mainland Bridge, Lagos, one week ahead of the scheduled delivery date of November 6, 2012.

The government had partially closed the 3rd Mainland Bridge on July 7 to enable the contractor, Messrs Boroni Prono and Company Limited, to replace eight expansion joints on the bridge for a contract sum of N1bn.

The reopening of the bridge will come as a welcome relief to motorists and commuters, who have had to connect Lagos Island, Victoria Island, Lekki, Ajah and Epe from different parts of the mainland through Western Avenue due to restriction of vehicular movement on the bridge from 12 noon to 12am, while opening for movement to the mainland within the same time.

The Special Adviser to the Minister of Works on Media, Mr. Tony Ikpasaja, confirmed the reopening of the bridge in a telephone conversation with our correspondent on Monday.

According to him, the Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen, will open the rehabilitated 3rd Mainland bridge to motorists at a ceremony that will also have in attendance federal and Lagos State government officials and other stakeholders.

Onolememen had said during an inspection tour of the 3rd Mainland bridge on August 10, “The inspection visit is to track the progress that the contractor has made; whether actual progress is in line with our planned programme. I am happy to announce that the physical progress in not only in line with our programme, but there has been a gain of approximately one week, which is very commendable.

“It means that if we sustain the momentum, we will be able to deliver the project ahead of the scheduled delivery date of November 6, 2012.”

He had explained that the Federal Government decided to rehabilitate the 3rd Mainland bridge, which is the longest and most travelled in the country, because of its commitment to giving due attention to infrastructure in Lagos State, which he said was attracting about 53 per cent of commercial activities in the country.

As parts of efforts to minimise the disruptions to free flow of traffic in the metropolis, the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority had deployed 700 officers to the 3rd Mainland bridge and traffic points on the alternative routes.

Officers of the Nigerian Police, Nigerian Army, Federal Road Safety Corps and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps joined their LASTMA colleagues in managing the attendant traffic.

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Train Crushed Peugeot Bus This Morning in Ikeja

 

Omg this is indeed a sad story. A driver of a Peugeot J5 this morning sent the occupants in his bus to an early grave. The bus driver is said to have been in a hurry to cross the rail tracks and ignored the fast moving train which was blaring its horn. It happened at ‘Ikeja along’ (you know the express that leads to Oshodi if you are on the right and Iyana Ipaja if you are on the left). 

Now this is another one law enforcement agencies need to monitor dearly. Okada riders and some Danfo drivers will still not stop despite the warning signal and even though some LASTMA officers are right in front of them.

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Lagos State Traffic Offences and Penalties

In case you've been living under the rock and haven't heard about the very strict traffic laws in Lagos state, then please take a moment to look at this table before you end up in prison for buying and eating gala while driving.

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New Traffic Law - Truck Owners Beg Fashola

 

Truck owners in the country have expressed fear that the new traffic law introduced by Lagos State Government will leave them at the mercy of armed robbers, who will attack their trucks at night.

The truck owners, who assessed the implication of the restriction order on their activities in Lagos, condemned the new law. They maintained that the exemption of fuel tankers from the restriction order indicates that most of the fuel tankers belonged to those in power.

They also noted that the law, which prescribed N50,000 fine and the impounding of trucks plying the roads during the day, was another way of extorting them. They said the policy would lead to congestion in the ports as many trucks will not be able to cope with the volume of cargo coming into the ports.

President of Association of Maritime Truck Owners, AMATO, Chief Remi Ogungbemi, told newsmen that the association would make effort to dialogue with the state government to resolve the issue.

He added that the road traffic law was capable of sending most of the truck owners out of business as the law was not favourable to them and might expose truck drivers to danger at night.
Ogungbemi called on the state government to rescind the decision considering its negative impact on the economy of the nation.

Also speaking, Chief Eneh, Vice Chairman of Joint Council of Trucks, said the law was not acceptable to them, adding that they would seek legal means to stop the government from implementing same as a lot of workers in trucking industry would lose their jobs.

Another stakeholder, Mr. Ibrahim Omotayo, said the law was not bad, as its workability remained the major problem as there are no parking spaces, the roads are bad and the security situation leaves much to be desired.

Source Vanguard

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