Fresh facts have emerged that the federal government is considering shutting the Third Mainland Bridge for six months to give room for a comprehensive overhaul of the bridge.
The federal government had before now said the bridge will be closed to traffic from Saturday, October 21, 2023, to Sunday, October 22, 2023, for palliative works.
The Federal Controller of Works in Lagos State, Olukorede Keisha revealed the latest plans for the bridge on Friday when she spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
According to her, the extensive repair work will commence in late January 2024 , adding that the bridge will be temporarily closed for six months to facilitate the much-needed repairs.
She said, “So we were saying let us do a complete overhaul of the asphalt overlay. Some of them have been long overdue because we haven’t done that in the last 30 years. It is just the failures that have shown up that we have been addressing.’’
Keisha emphasized that the bridge will undergo a complete overhaul of the asphalt layer on both sides and then replacing it with new ones to last the next 10 years.
“The Federal government has awarded that contract already, and preparatory works are pending when the contractor moves to the site because there are some elements of repairs that need to be imported. Pending that we just want to do palliative works to provide relief for motorists.
“It is going to take the contractor three months to import those elements needed for the repair.
“One bound will be for three months then we will divert to the other bound once we are done with this bound we will bring back traffic to this lane.
“Afterwards we were going to have a very brand new road.’’
