FG Explains Delay in Completion of 2nd Niger Bridge

The Federal Government on Wednesday said the sit-at-home order by the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) contributed to the seeming delay in completion of the Second Niger Bridge project. 

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola made this disclosure when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, programme monitored by DIPLOMATIC.

 “These dates keep shifting and people must remember that on the eastern side, our contractors have not been able to work on Mondays for almost two years and that has affected the completion date”, the Minister said

According to him, while construction workers work on Saturdays, a 52-day loss cannot easily be made up for in construction work.

He said other challenges like relocating transmission lines connecting the East to the West across the Niger River, contributed also  to days lost.

On the remaining 4km stretch of the road, Fashola said the construction is taking place in a marshland and as such, there is great need for dredging and sand filling, process which he says cannot be rushed.

He emphasized that the reason the ministry and its contractors have made great progress on the road so far, is because they have employed the use of Prefabricated Vertical Drains which accelerate settlement and drainage and as such, workers can start building quicker than would ordinarily have been expected.

The minister however promised that the new target date to deliver a perfectly completed Second-Niger Bridge will be April/May 2023, adding that inevitably the bridge will be tolled to ensure that it is maintained to serve Nigerians for many years.

The Federal Government had on December 15, opened the 2nd Niger Bridge for traffic.

Fashola said the Bridge will be opened for use for one month during the yuletide. He noted that the bridge would be closed to traffic on January 15, 2023.

-diplomatic diary