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Tag: Lagos-Ibadan road

  • Lawmakers cut N21b off Lagos-Ibadan road vote

    Lawmakers cut N21b off Lagos-Ibadan road vote

    The depth of the changes the National Assembly made in the 2017 budget was revealed yesterday by Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola.

    The lawmakers slashed N21billion off the N31billion vote for the Lagos –Ibadan Expressway. The contractor is threatening to abandon the project.

    Besides, N5billion was taken off the Second Niger Bridge.

    The money taken away from these projects is diverted to projects inserted by the lawmakers. These projects are not priorities of the Federal Government, according to Fashola, who spoke in Lagos.

    He said: “What I have in my budget now is primary healthcare centres, boreholes.’’

    He added: “That was the meeting we had with the Acting President and that was the reason why the budget was not signed on time.

    “We were asked to complete those abandoned projects; the budget of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was reduced by the National Assembly from N31 billion to N10 billion.

    “We are owing the contractors about N15 billion and they have written to us that they are going to shut down.

    “Also, the budget of the 2nd Niger bridge was reduced from N15 billion to N10 billion and about N3 billion or so was removed from the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja road budget.’’

    According to the minister, “Everybody is complaining about power supply but they also cut the budget for Manbila power project and the Bodo bridge that connects the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Station was also cut and all these were also discussed.”

    He asked: “If after we had defended the budget and we had gone and the legislature unilaterally changed the budget, what is the purpose of deliberation?’’

    To the former Lagos State Governor, it is unfair to Nigerians after public hearings were conducted with tax payers’ money and consultations with the lawmakers only for the budget to be altered, cut or padded.

    The minister said to the 200 uncompleted roads he inherited from the previous administration, the lawmakers added 100.

    “These roads are not federal roads and some of them do not have designs; how do we award roads that were not designed irrespective of the power you have?

    “It is unconstitutional for the National Assembly  to legislate on state roads.

    “The executive controls all the machinery for collecting taxes and other revenue with relevant data from the Ministries of Finance, Physical Planning and the Budget Office and others.

    “I am not saying that the legislature cannot contribute to the budget, but I hold the view that it cannot increase the budget because they do not collect the revenue with which to run or implement the budget.

    “The society benefits more from the power of example and interdependence rather than the example (show) of power; it requires that we show good examples.’’

    On the concept of interdependence, Fashola said the President and the Vice-President could not swear themselves into office but by the judicial arm, while the president also proclaims the National Assembly without which it could not start business.

    In the same vein, he said the National Assembly confirms ministerial nominees and justices of the courts who are in turn sworn-in by the executive.

    He urged the intervention of the judicial arm of government to set the necessary parameters and set things right.

    Fashola, however, blamed the electorate for putting pressure on the lawmakers and expecting them to do what was outside their constitutional duties of law-making, representation and oversight.

  • Four die in Lagos-Ibadan road accident

    Four persons died yesterday in a multiple vehicle accident on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
    Twelve others were injured.
    The accident, which involved an IVECO truck, a white Toyota car and a bus in the fleet of Delta State transport firm, occurred at ASCON, near the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Camp.
    The Sector Commander for Ogun State Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr. Oladele Clement, told The Nation four persons were burnt to death.
    He said the injured were taken to the RCCG Hospital.
    Oladele said FRSC operatives, other traffic and emergency agencies cleared obstructions and controlled traffic.
    The Nation gathered that motorists were advised to use alternate routes out of Lagos, especially via Ikorodu or Sango Ota, and same for those connecting Lagos should avoid Mowe end into Lagos.

  • ‘Crashes reduce on Lagos-Ibadan Road

    ‘Crashes reduce on Lagos-Ibadan Road

    Barely three weeks into the enforcement of the speed limit device, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has recorded a noticeable decrease in crash rates on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
    The FRSC gave motorists, especially commercial vehicles and fleet operators, up to Feb. 1 to comply with the directive.
    The FRSC Sagamu Unit Commander, Mohammed Abdullahi, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that since the enforcement began, the expressway ‘notorious’ for its high traffic volume and fatalities had recorded a significant reduction in crashes.
    He noted that majority of the crashes hitherto recorded, especially on the completed and smooth portions of the road were speed-related.
    The Assistant Corps Commandant attributed the sharp decline in crash rates to the compliance of commercial vehicles to the installation of the “speed limit” devices.

    Abdullahi said that if maintained, the FRSC would be able to attain its 2017 “Corporate Strategic Goals” of reducing traffic crashes and fatalities along the corridor by 15 per cent and 25 per cent.

  • Gridlock on Lagos-Ibadan road

    Gridlock on Lagos-Ibadan road

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) yesterday advised motorists plying the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to take alternative routes as a fuel-laden tanker fell around Sagamu Interchange, spilling its contents on the road.
    The Sector Commander in Ogun, Clement Oladele, said the tanker fell early yesterday.
    Oladele said efforts were on to prevent a fire.
    “Due to the tanker conveying fuel which fell at Sagamu, the resultant gridlock on the Lagos/Ibadan corridor has affected traffic as efforts are ongoing to prevent a fire,” he said.
    The sector commander advised motorists to go through the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Papalanto/Ifo Ota and Ijebu/Epe roads.
    The sector commander said the combined teams of FRSC and Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) were on ground to normalise the situation

  • Four killed as crash locks down Lagos-Ibadan road

    Four killed as crash locks down Lagos-Ibadan road

    Four people died yesterday in a multiple accident  on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

    Six vehicles were razed in the accident, which occurred around 3a.m. It was said to have been caused by a diesel-laden tanker, which went out of control and rammed into a truck carrying beer. A huge fire was ignited. The other vehicles rammed into them.

    It all happened around Kara Bus Stop in Isheri Osun on the Ibadan-bound part of the ever-busy expressway.

    The driver of the tanker and his “motor boys” were burnt.

    A victim who dived into the lagoon in a bid to put out the fire on his body got drowned, eyewitnesses said.

    Other burnt vehicles are two containerised trucks, two trailers, the tanker and a Toyota Corolla saloon.

    As emergency workers battled to contain the Kara disaster, another petrol tanker fell at the Berger end of the Otedola Bridge. This compounded the traffic jam that had spread for as long as eyes could see —far beyond the old Lagos toll gate.

    The gridlock extended to Ikorodu Road towards Maryland, forcing traffic diversion.

    Although the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) insisted that only three persons died, independent sources put the casualty figure at four.

    A decomposed body was found floating in the lagoon.

    LASEMA General Manager Adesina Tiamiyu said: “Recovery operations of burnt vehicles with LASEMA’s heavy duty equipment ongoing to abate gridlock, which has built up on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Traffic has affected almost every part of the expressway and Ikorodu road up to Alapere and Ogudu.

    “Road users, especially articulated truck drivers, are advised to avoid overspeeding and adhere to safety regulations while plying the road so as to forestall avoidable disasters.

     ”Investigation on the incident would be carried out by appropriate authorities at the scene.”

    NEMA Southwest Coordinator Alhaji Suleiman Yakubu said the intervention of firemen, operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps minimised the casualty.

    According to Yakubu, a driver of one of the vehicles sustained a minor injury. Others were unhurt.

    NEMA Southwest spokesman Ibrahim Farinloye confirmed that six vehicles  – a car, three containers and two tankers – were involved in the accident.

    Scores of people were trekking long distances on the expressway because vehicular traffic was stuck for the greater part of the day. Many workers living on the outskirts of Lagos, who must travel on the expressway to get to work failed to make it.

    Those trekking were people living in Ibafo, Mowe, Warewa, Magboro, Prayer City area and Arepo in Ogun  State, working or going to Lagos.

    Many travelers were stranded. Others who tried to return home got stuck in traffic.

    As at yesterday afternoon, some of the vehicles were still burning on the bridge. It was around 4pm that NEMA said it had cleared the debris to allow movement of vehicles.

    Officers of the FRSC cordoned off the area to prevent further losses and theft.

    Also affected were those travelling to Lagos from other parts of Nigeria as well as those travelling outside Lagos.

    The gridlock from the Kara Bridge, close to the popular Julius Berger Bus Stop, stretched to Asese, a few kilometers away from the Redemption Camp – as at 8 a.m.

    Similarly, the queue formed by the Lagos outbound vehicles had stretched from the scene to Magodo, opposite the Lagos State Secretariat complex.

    Many intending passengers who had wanted to travel to Lagos were stranded at their various bus stops because majority of the commercial buses that could have conveyed them were stuck in the traffic.

    A witness, who identified himself as Suraju Fadele, said the accident was caused by a fast moving unmarked trailer loaded with petroleum product that ran into another articulated vehicle and immediately exploded.

    “I was waiting by the road side for my friend with some others to display our beef for the early morning market sales.

    “Suddenly, I saw a trailer on top speed moving toward our side. It passed us.

    “A few metres away from us, we heard a loud explosion which made us run for dear lives, and afterwards, we saw huge billows of fire on the bridge.

    “We realised that the trailer must have rammed into other articulated vehicles on the bridge because there were many of them there.

    “The problem with the accident is that nobody could move near the scene because of the raging fire,’’ he said.

    Another witness, who simply identified himself as Bashir, lamented the reckless and dangerous manner articulated vehicles usually drive on the road.

    “What caused the accident was simply speeding. The driver of the tanker was on top speed and I wonder why such speed.

    “Before I could look ahead, he had smashed into another trailer ahead of it.

    “When the trailer sped past us, we remarked that its driver was speeding and within the twinkle of an eye, we heard the bang, followed by a raging fire.

    “There was another trailer under repair on the bridge, which I think was loaded with rice; the trailer must have rammed into it”, Bashir said.

    Similar incidents in the past, led to loss of lives on the road. On January7,  some passengers died in a fire.  Another occurred on July21; some passengers also died.

    Work is on on the expressway, which is arguably Nigeria’s busiest. Julius Berger Plc is working on the expressway from Sagamu Interchange Bridge to the Lagos end of the old toll gate around 7-Up.

    Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) is handling the stretch from Sagamu Interchange Bridge to the old Ibadan end toll gate.

  • Lagos-Ibadan Road to be completed soon, says Fashola

    Lagos-Ibadan Road to be completed soon, says Fashola

    Expansion and rehabilitation work on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will be completed soon, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said.

    Fashola, who reviewed his first year in office in Lagos at the weekend, said the long bridge at the Lagos-Ogun boundary on the road had to be shut because construction work was ongoing underneath it.

    “Roads are depreciating assets that need constant maintenance and regulated usage,” he said, adding that the issue of overloaded trucks was being addressed.

    According to him, the government is looking into the issue of double-axle articulated vehicles that transport more tonnage than most roads were built to accommodate.

    Fashola also said weighbridges will be reintroduced on the roads to arrest overloading.

    He said, however, that warehouses have to be built by the weighbridges to take in offloaded extra goods from arrested haulage vehicles.

    The minister added that the issue of reintroducing tollgates on roads would be decided by Nigerians, noting that he had not forgotten his experience as Lagos State governor.

    The minister said electricity generation had improved considerably in the last 12 months, peaking at above 5074MW for the first time in the nation’s 63-year-old electricity history earlier this year.

    He said this had created jobs for hitherto idle artisans, small and medium scale entrepreneurs and empowered other businesses.

    He said more than 800 containers of imported power generation and distribution components stranded at the ports had been released as a result of his ministry’s efforts and the intervention of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

    He regretted that about 3000MW of electricity was lost to vandalism, adding, however, that the Federal Government was discussing with agitators to end the destruction.

    Fashola said electricity generation would continue to appreciate as more stations come on stream and contribute to the National Grid.

    The minister appealed to electricity consumers to be patient with distribution companies over insufficient prepaid meters, noting that the privatisation of the sector was only three years old.

    He said the meters would soon be readily available as more companies embark on their production in Nigeria.

    The contractor handling the road rehabilitation, Julius Berger Nigeria Ltd, will divert traffic on additional sections of the road.

    The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), in a statement at the weekend, said Ibadan bound traffic will be diverted to the Lagos bound carriageway CH38+400 and CH 43+700 to allow the laying of the wearing course.

    The diversions will lead to the closure of the Ibadan bound exit road leading to Sagamu as well as the Sagamu bound exit road leading to Ibadan.

    The temporary closure would be from Wednesday till November 23.

  • Govt rethinks concession of Lagos-Ibadan road

    Govt rethinks concession of Lagos-Ibadan road

    How will the public interest best be served? Is it by concessioning the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway or by throwing it open in a competitive bidding? With Works Minister Mike Onolememen saying the road will be handed over to the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to advertise for bidders after its ongoing rehabilitation, the days of concession may be numbered, writes OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE.

    The Federal Government may have made a ‘u’ turn on the consessioning of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway following the revocation of its agreement with Bi-Courtney Highway Service (BHS). The government revoked Bi-Courtney’s contract to build operate and transfer (BOT) the road following what it called “serial breaches of the concession, especially the company’s failure to reach financial closure as provided for in the agreement”.

    Works Minister Mike Onolememen told The Nation that the road would be handed over to the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to advertise for bidders after the ongoing remedial by Julius Berger and RCC. Julius Berger and RCC, he said, were hired to do emergency reconstruction of the road to reduce carnage and enhance safety preparatory to full reconstruction.

    The minister said: “The previous concession agreement entered into by government had an exit clause, we initiated and terminated the agreement based on what was provided in the contract. In India three road concession agreements were cancelled because there was no financial closure. There is nothing unusual about what we have done.”

    Onolememen said BPE would do its work by pre-qualifying contractors after the ministry has approved the design for the highway.

    The Nation learnt from a source that the price may be scaled down from the over N89 billion to about N60 billion as the road will not be concessioned again.The source also revealed that government may reach an agreement with the former concessionaire to trade the design of the road for a fee since they already have done extensive work in coming up with the design of the road.

    Noting that part of the reasons the rehabilitation of the road was delayed the source said government will prefer to hit the ground running with what is available but certainly the source was too sure that the Federal Government has kissed bye-bye to the concessioning of the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway. On the likely firms that may get the job, the highly placed source said the two companies would be given top priority due to their track record and the fact that they have an agreement with the Federal Government in Lagos and many other parts of the country.

    Furthermore he said in ranking Julius Berger may get it since they are known to handle high technical jobs in difficult terrain for the government before now.

  • Govt changes gear on Lagos-Ibadan road

    Govt changes gear on Lagos-Ibadan road

    The two weeks ultimatum it gave has since expired, but the Federal Government is yet to act on the concessioned Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. It is now promising to enforce the 25-year concession agreement with Bi-Courtney Highway Services (bchs) after the rainy season. Will it live up to its word? OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE asks

    AT the expiration of the 14-day ultimatum, the public expected the government to move in and do something about the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, which was concessioned to Bi-Courtney Highway Services (BCHS) in 2009.

    But five weeks after the expiration of the ultimatum issued in Lagos on Friday by Works Minister Mike Enolememen, the government is shifting the goalpost.

    Onolememen told The Nation a few days ago that the government is mindful of the contract stipulations and wouldnot hesitate to enforce the agreement at the end of the rainy season.

    When he inpected the Third mainland Bridge, which is being rehabilitated, last month, Onolememen said the government would make its position known in “14 days on the way forward.” Over three years after the road was concessioned to Bi-Courtney, not much work has been done on it.

    He said: “The government is already engaging the concessionaire in a bid to find the way forward. There has been a series of meetings; the meetings will end next week after that, the way forward will be known.

    “What is important is that government is committed more than ever before to delivering that road and doing it quickly considering the economic potential of the road.”

    The expressway, which links Lagos with other parts of the country, is dilapidated, resulting in traffic snarl, waste of manhour and frequent accidents.

    A community leader in  Ibafo, Mr Olugboro Akinyemi, decried  the delay on the construction of the road, accusing the government of insincerity and lacking the political will to enforce the contract with the concessionaire.

    He wondered why the government seemed helpless in getting the job done if the contract was done in good faith. Akinyemi recounted commuters’ hardship on the road daily and the government’s lack of empathy. He dismissed the promise by the minister as a political statement.

    A resident of Magboro, Mrs Kelechi Ikem, who runs a primary school, lamented the toll on her business. Many parents, she said, now look for nearby schools for their children and wards as the road has become too bad to commute daily.

    She appealed to the government to enforce the contract to save the lives and resources of travellers and residents who use the road daily.

    Another resident in Arepo, Mr Ajayi Lukas, who works on Victoria Island, leaves home every day before 5am and does not get back before 11pm.

    He wondered  for how long he would do this and still be effective at work and home, appealing to the government  to make up its mind on what to do with the road in the interest of the public.

    He decried the penchant of Nigerians to play politics  with almost everything  imaginable and called on the Federal Government to come up with a definite road map on the Lagos/lbadan Expressway.

    The Nation checks revealed that the ministry is mindful of the legal implications of cancelling the concession agreement and is, therefore, taking its time to plug loopholes to save the government from possible litigation and long-drawn court battle.

    Another aspect to the issue is that some high level politics was ongoing on the concession as there is a divide between some government officials who want the status quo to remain and others canvassing the cancellation of the contract, to make room for a more competent contractor to handle the project to put the government in good light considering the critical position of the road in the economy and politics of the country.

    But a source said all depended on President Goodluck Jonathan as nobody seemed to know where his stand.

    The minister, while underscoring the government’s sincerity on not just the rehabilitation of the road, spoke of plans to ensure that most highways across the nation are in good condition. He said the launch of Project Safe Passage was geared towards ensuring that Nigerians are provided with good roads devoid of potholes to promote safe motoring and passage.

    On the strategy to deliver the project, Onolememen said government would ensure that contractors engaged by the Federal Ministry of Works and the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) recovered all sections of their road alignments that have failed.

    He said the project would be considered as a contingency for failed sections of road alignments across the country and that federal roads without subsisting contracts would be taken over by FERMA through its direct labour scheme for the implementation of the project.

    Onolememen said to empower contractors to deliver on the project, the Federal Ministry of Works had paid outstanding certificates on its projects to contractors within the limit of the 2012 Budget.

    He said though rehabilitation and reconstruction works had been stepped up on majority and about 11 road projects completed, many are still unhappy over the state of roads in the country.

    He urged contractors handling various projects on federal roads to submit their schedule of work for the safe passage programme within seven days.

    Onolememen added that contractors would be accountable to their approved programmes of work and contractors who fail would be sanctioned.