Motorists raise alarm over Apapa bridges

MOTORISTS plying various bridges in Apapa have called on the federal and state governments to urgently commence repair works on them to avoid imminent collapse. Motorists and commuters using the Apapa road network say they have noticed frightening movements in the expansion joints of the Ijora-Apapa bridge.


There are also concerns over the safety of the bridges leading to the two largest ports in Nigeria – Tin Can Is- land and the Lagos Port Complex, Apapa.
The condition of the bridges worsened in the last one year as heavy duty vehicles, oil tankers and containerladen trucks converted them to parking bays, following the unending traffic snarl in Apapa area.

According to a commercial bus driver, Taiwo Ayeni, “the bridges concerned are those linking Ijora to Airways/Flour Mills, which we call Leventis bridge and Liverpool bridge linking Creek Road. Right now, wide gaps have developed in most sections of their beds or carriageways and going by the daily stress on them as a result of the load they bear, we’re really worried about the safety of motorists and commuters using these bridges. In fact, a national tragedy is imminent if they are left unattended to soon urgently. Even containers and tankers park on the bridge because of traffic. They stay on it for days and the bridge is a transit point not a parking bay,” he said.

A commuter and Computer Analyst, Eze Anyanwu, who works in Apapa, said the bridges have become a major source of worry to those who ply them.
“You need to be in a bus and notice the vibrations. Everyone is complaining and everybody is scared. Let the government step in and fix the bridges,” he lamented.

The bridges, which were part of the Eko Bridge complex that was started at the end of the General Yakubu Gowon’s administration and completed during the Murtala Mohammed/Olusegun Obasanjo regime have only been rehabilitated twice since they were constructed.
The two repair works took place in the 1990s when asphalt was laid on them but since then, there has been no other attempt to rehabilitate the two bridges daily being used by tankers that load fuel from tank farms around the Lagos ports as well as trucks that evacuate containers from the two ports.

Culled from the Sun