Federal government has commenced the construction of the 700km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and maintenance of critical bridges in Lagos.
The minister of works Nweze David Umahi during the handover of the first phase of the project said the government would not allow variation arising from delays or slow pace of work once mobilisation had been done.
The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway spans nine states with two spurs leading to the Northern States.
A statement by the special adviser media to the minister, Orji Uchenna, said the first phase which is to be constructed in concrete pavement made up of 47.47 kilometers dual carriageway has been handed over to Hitech Construction Company Ltd.
The minister who was in the company of the Federal Ministry of Works' controller in charge of Lagos
State, Engr. O. I. Kesha emphasized the need for all contractors handling federal government’s road projects to deliver within a record time.
He, however, commended Hitech Construction Company Nigeria Ltd for the quality and speedy delivery of jobs.
Uchenna said, " They have completed some filling of 1.3 kilometer from the day the project was awarded to them. It shows the speed they are going to deploy to this project. Within a couple of weeks, we awarded the project to them, they mobilized a lot of dredging equipment, and you can see that they have recovered 1.3-kilometre of section one of the phase."
The minister who also visited project sites at the Queen's Drive Ikoyi, the Third Mainland bridge top deck, the underwater, the Eddo Bridge and Carter bridge expressed the determination of the federal government to carry out a comprehensive rehabilitation of the bridges which he said are critical links between the Mainland and the Island of Lagos.
These repairs are expected to cover not only the top of the bridge but also the under bridge works.
He said, " At the Third Mainland bridge, we have three or four critical elements to be rehabilitated. The
first one is the deck, and the deck is about 11 kilometers × two. That is dual carriageway, including the
ramps, and it has been done by CCECC. They have done very beautiful jobs, but we have not concluded.
Before the end of March, we'll be concluding the asphalt milling and the reasphalting".