By Babajide Okeowo
Commuters on the ever-busy Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki expressway will soon have a reason to smile as the federal government has pledged to complete work on the road by December 2021.
The Federal Director of Highway Construction and Rehabilitation in the Ministry of Works, Mr. Funso Adebiyi gave this assurance during the inspection of the four sections of the project. He disclosed that the road had achieved varying levels of work on all the sections.
“Overall, 61 per cent has been achieved as of today, in the first phase covering 27km of this ever-busy road project.
On section 1, we have achieved about 70 per cent completion; and on section 3, we have achieved 63 per cent. Section 4 has recorded about 41 per cent, which means work is going on in that section. The contract for section 2 has been awarded and work would commence there soon” a statement by the Director, Press, at the Ministry of Works, Mr. Boade Akinola, said.
The director explained that before the intervention of the federal government through the ministry of works and housing, the road was in a deplorable state which hindered the free flow of traffic on the road.
“But from what we have seen so far on the finished portions of the road, I want to assure you that bad days are over. We have good days here now and better days are ahead of us. So, Nigerians should bear with us.
We are making progress and I can assure you that by the end of this year, Apapa port users would have the best road because we have made significant progress,” he explained.
Adebiyi noted that the current traffic gridlock experienced on some sections of the road was not due to the construction but the illegal parking of trailer drivers on the bridge, advising that the drivers should use the trailer parks along the corridor and the newly constructed one for transit to the port.
On the economic benefit of the project, the Director of Highway, South-west, Mr. Kuti Adedamola, said aside from easing traffic, the project had created about 600 direct jobs and over 1,000 indirect ones.
