Residents of Soluyi Community in Gbadaga, Lagos , have appealed to the government to construct bridges for easy access to Mende, Maryland and Ifako communities.
The bridges, they suggested, should be constructed on the Bariga/Soluyi canal at Aderemi Akeju Street, which links Faderera Lane, off Shina Abey Street in Maryland, as well as the Deeper Life drainage channel linking Yetunde Brown Street in Ifako.
When The Nation visited the area yesterday, a resident, Abiye Williams, said the actualisation of the two link bridges would also assist the government in its traffic management drive.
Williams, a farmer, said the bridges would ease traffic congestion around Third Mainland Bridge, Ikeja, Maryland and Bariga/Akoka corridors.
He said: “It will provide the most direct connection between Gbagada Hospital complex and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja. The journey that should take at most three minutes drive, takes about an hour or more because there are no alternative routes in the community.”
A banker, Samson Ebhoaye, lamented that the Deeper Life Bible Church headquarters in Gbagada will worsen traffic congestion when completed.
He said: “Almost everybody in Gbagada area use one road because other link routes are canals. This is why we are calling on the government to construct bridges on these two canals and enable us have alternative routes out of Gbagada to other parts of the state. When the church is completed, the traffic congestion in the area will be out of control.”
“Whenever it rains, going out is a problem. I always take bike from my house out of Gbagada, and then I will take public transport to work. This mode of transportation is not convenient for me but I don’t have a choice. A lot of people will rather stay back at home whenever it rains, than to go and face the traffic.”
Another resident, Adebayo Oseni, urged government to ensure constant cleaning of the canals in the environment, lamenting that when it rains, flood from the canals spill into other areas, causing damages.