THE Jibowu and Costain bridges in Lagos would only be demolished after constructing two new ones as part of Lagos-Ibadan Standard Rail Project, Federal Controller of Works, Godwin Eke, has said.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday that it was important to construct new bridges before demolishing the existing ones in order not to lock down Lagos.

Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, had in November 2017 announced that Jibowu and Costain bridges would be demolished to give way for the laying of tracks of Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge railways.

The project is expected to be completed early next year.

Eke said that an agreement had been reached between the Federal Ministry of Power,

Works and Housing; Federal Ministry of Transportation and Lagos State Government on ease of the project.

“The agreement is that Federal Ministry of Transportation must not demolish the bridges until they replace them; they have been asked to provide the alternative first,’’ he said.

According to him, the bridges take and redistribute high traffic from various axis of metropolitan Lagos.

He explained that the concrete bridge after Costain Roundabout would give way to a new higher bridge which would serve as a flyover above the new railway line.

The controller said that the Costain bridge had to be demolished because it lacked enough headroom for the new train.

“The headroom is not sufficient for the new standard gauge train that will pass under.

“That is why we want to demolish that bridge, build a new one that would accommodate the headroom.

“But we have to provide alternative because if there is no alternative, vehicular movement would be paralyzed,’’ the controller said.

He said that the Lagos State Government would pay compensation to some property owners whose houses would be demolished in order to create space for the project.

According to him, the Jibowu flyover, which currently takes and redistributes traffic from four major intersections, would be re-designed to redistribute traffic two ways by separating rail and road routes.

He explained that the Jibowu flyover took traffic above the intersection of Agege Motor, Herbert Macaulay, Ikorodu and Murtala Mohammed roads.

He said there were plans to separate road traffic from rail traffic where both met, citing Ikeja GRA and Sogunle road/rail intersections as examples.

This, he said, would prevent accidents as the new standard gauge trains would move faster than the existing railway.

Eke said that the two ministries and other stakeholders were collaborating to fast track the project and achieve Federal Government’s vision of providing intermodal transport for Nigerians. (NAN)

– Feb.  22, 2018 @ 17:05 GMT |