It’s another rainy season in Lagos, and inevitably another season of woes and endless lamentation for commuters. This year’s heavy downpour, combined with the horrible state of the roads, has yet again brought back the bad old days of traffic logjam, thereby underlining the poor maintenance culture of the city managers. Omolara Akintoye, who went round Mainland Lagos, captures the feelings of the people.
The heavy downpour in Lagos in recent weeks has created potholes leading to nerve breaking gridlock like never before.
Many commuters have been stuck in traffic for donkey hours, be it the morning or evening, and it is either late clock-in at work and /or late arrival at home. For impatient or suspicious spouses, especially those who don’t have to go through the traffic, it has been endless arguments and vituperation.
This is not to talk of the missed appointments, interviews, flights and other opportunities, and of course, lives lost in stuck ambulances.
Worse is the fact that it is perennial – everyday, week-long.
Of note is the fact that irrespective of the man-hour wasted, one is not likely to see any trace of the impediments, when eventually one breaks free from the logjam.
In the early hours of this Tuesday morning, it was a combination of flooding caused by poor drainage network and poor state of the roads.
The Toll Gate axis of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, for instance, withholds rainwater, creating a bottleneck for traffic flow in and out of the ever busy Expressway. But beyond is a mishmash of potholes coupled with narrow roads. Inevitably, a vehicular bumper-to-bumper situation is created.
The rains in the Mega-City called Lagos, especially in June/July this year, has been torrential, for days unending. Like the saying goes, it doesn’t just rain, it pours.
For instance, the stretch between Alakuko down to Salolo and Abule Egba axis and Iyana Ipaja and Ikeja Along, a daily hub of some sort for residents and commuters, were the height of the chaos. Today, the section inwards Oshodi has failed as a result of narrow road and when you consider the influx of cars and trucks on that axis, the road needs to be widened.
More tears, woes for residents and commuters
The Nation went round these areas to speak with some of the commuters:
For Mr Niyi Arowolo, a lawyer, he said “As one of the residents in Lagos, on a daily basis, I commute from Ogun State to Toll Gate axis on Lagos-Abeokuta expressway down to Agege, particularly around the corridors of Alakuko, between Moshalahi to Salolo all the way to Ijaiye Bus-stop, which is quite irritable are not too good. As a result, most times trucks fall in these areas, making it difficult for vehicular movement. Moving from that corridor down to Agege is nothing to write home about, an eye-sore, to say the least. Commuters face untold hardship; a journey that ordinarily ought to take less than 45 minutes, now takes nothing less than three hours.
“Likewise, moving from that end down to Abule Egba towards Agege to Ogba, particularly around Agege Local Government Secretariat is horrible, traffic caused by multiple potholes. Moving further, towards Mobil Filling Station, it is another bad story; same when you move to Ogba, Area G, to Omole. Another area that is bad is Oba Akran Avenue, pot holes all over the road hinders free flow of traffic, causing untold hardship.
“Back to Ile-Epo Axis, the road there is so narrow. Imagine an expressway having only one lane? Then consider the influx of traffic coming all the way from Ogun State. Iyana Ipaja is another bottle neck area, which the government needs to look into, down to Ikeja Along. Traffic here is so horrible, causing commuters unimaginable hardship – whether going to work or business locations, or coming back home. Often times, commuters spend most of the time they ought to spend resting and rejuvenating, stuck in traffic. This is not good at all and I will say the government, whether federal, state of local should sit up and save the people this daily horror.”
Arowolo is especially calling Lagos State government to assist in fixing all the potholes scattered all over Lagos, “Once these roads are fixed, definitely, commuters will enjoy free flow of traffic and at the end of the day, the multiplier effect is that Lagosians will live in a conducive environment and their lives will be elongated.”
On his part, Mr. Adeyanju Adebayo, a surveyor by profession, who resides in Agbado-Ijaiye but has an office on Allen Avenue, said “Road traffic in Lagos is getting worse on a daily basis because the roads are now riddled with potholes. Imagine spending six hours on the road, which ordinarily should not be more than one and half hours. At times, you have to keep your vehicle at home and take a bike, all because of the bad roads; but this is so risky. This rainy season is no doubt enlarging the potholes and they are getting deeper. The implication of this is that you have to spend more to repair your car. For instance, my shock absorber which in the past used to last me up to six months, I now change it every month. I also have to change my tyres regularly, as well as do the alignment. This, no doubt, is increasing the cost of transportation; don’t forget that spending long hours in traffic consumes fuel; and you have to face this horror, coming back again. The situation is also not helped by the fact that most of the drainages are blocked. I want both the Federal Government and Lagos State Government to look at palliative measures for now, since the rains are still pouring, before awarding the contract to experts for full repair works as soon as dry season sets in. They should also assign LASTMA officials and Army officials to man all the major bus-stops, to rein in the recalcitrant commuter bus drivers.”
Granted that some of these roads are federal-owned, state-owned roads offer no joy either, as they are even worse-off post-repairs.
A trader who lives at Ogba and plies Agbado-Mushin route every day, Mrs Banke Olaide, said: “The roads get very bad for those of us who live here when it rains. At the slightest rainfall, the road becomes impassable. Pedestrians have to walk along our shop corridors in order to avoid the pool of water.”
Agege towards Alimoso end is not better, with the woes of residents further compounded by the ongoing construction on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway and the flyover at Pen Cinema.
“Our suffering is too much and it is a shame. The travel time of about 30 minutes is now taking us two hours or more,” one commuter lamented.
Another commuter, Shola Aina, a Civil Engineer, attributed it to ‘poor planning and use of sub-standard materials. What I have seen with them is that they build or repair the road, most times with questionable materials.
“They also refuse to maintain the roads or clear the drainages, thereby allowing flood and dirt to collapse them as soon as possible, so that they can award another millions for repairs.
“When this happens, no matter how solid the road is, it will fail. Roads should be properly designed in such a way that water can easily run off after rain?” Aina said.
Besides, in designing the road, there is need to look at the traffic volume and the axial load of every truck that passes. If the design doesn’t consider the volume of transit vis-à-vis the axial load, the loads of plying trucks will fail such roads easily.
“Most importantly, the issue of quality of roads is another challenge. Every road depends on the terrain. A poorly constructed road would not stand the test of time.
“Every day, we tell government to give road construction and rehabilitation to people that have what it takes to construct the road, but often times, people that are given these contracts don’t know much about construction and they will always want to maximise profit. As a result, we have a situation whereby a road is constructed and in six months, it is gone,” Aina said.
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