Road 20 % completed, Section 1 ready for commuters use in 2 weeks, officials confirm

He said the construction met the standard which was stipulated by the Federal Ministry of Works.

“The contractor is close to 20 per cent completion now”.“As of today, they are about 16 per cent , 17 per cent completed.

” And at the rate at which they are working now, bearing all odds, they should be able to complete the project in time,” he said.

He said that the Federal Government had made huge investments into the road sector.

He said this was creating employment in the various value chains for Nigerians and professionals in the construction industry.

Also, Mrs Olukorede Keisha, the engineer from the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing supervising the project said that the ministry was able to resolve all problems of utilities in the Right of Way (RoW).

She said this had been slowing down the project.

Keisha explained that because the entire Apapa axis was already built up, it was difficult to relocate the pipelines in the RoW.

She said that led to the ministry to evolve a new design to move away from the pipes and protect them with covers.

“It is the gas pipelines that we met on the ground that constricted the road to 8 metres, originally it is supposed to be 11.4 meters.

“We met gas pipelines in the course of excavation which made us to shift towards inbound,” she said.

She added that the road was a rigid pavement that would last a minimum of 30 years.

Mr Babatunde Jimoh, the Project Manager of AG Dangote Construction Company, contractors on the project said that the project was divided into four sections.

He said that Section 1 has been completed and would be opened to light traffic.

“At present, we have completed work on Section 1 and we are going to open it to light traffic next week.

“Section 2 would be completed as planned by the end of March, like that, and we keep going,” he said.

Jimoh said that security had been beefed up on site to ensure safety as the firm currently worked both day and night to speed up construction.

He said that 90 per cent of local construction materials and 90 per cent local manpower were being used on the project.

“Most of the materials we are using are generated locally, we don’t need to import any materials to generate concrete road,” he said.

He said that only 16 out of the 150 staff on site are expatriates, adding that, artisans from the host community where the project is located were employed and trained to benefit from it.

Jimoh conducted journalists round the new equipment on site.

He said that the curing machines and slip form machines used improved technology to speed up construction time.

Jimoh responding to questions from the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) members said that “we are following all the quality standards of the Federal Ministry of Works”.

He added that there were service ducts available for future utilities to prevent road cuttings.

“At every 200 meters, we have 300 mm pipe to take utility from one side of the road to the other,” he said.

The Chairman of Lagos Branch of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Mr Johnson Akinwande led a delegation of engineers on the project tour.

He expressed satisfaction at the level of local engineers currently being engaged to handle the projects.

Akinwande also expressed satisfaction with the over 90 per cent use of locally sourced materials in the projects.

He said this had helped to which according to grow local industries, participation of Nigerian engineers in projects and at the same time creating jobs.

“I am happy with this construction because this road had become an eye sore before they started this construction,” he said.

He said that the Apapa Wharf Road was being constructed with durable materials that would stand the test of time.