28 August 2008
Lagos — Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola has announced a complete and total diversion of traffic from the Third Mainland Bridge on Sunday to allow for a more comprehensive work on the bridge currently being rehabilitated.
A statement signed on his behalf by his Special Adviser on Transportation , Kayode Opeifa, said "the work is progressing as planned and a little bit ahead of schedule."
According to the governor," We have reached one of the critical path in the time line (concrete reinforcement of two of the 4 joints to be replaced).The concrete setting will require 12 hours of curing with zero vibration.
Consequently, access to and from the bridge will be denied from 6.00 am to 12.00 midnight of Sunday, 31st of August, 2008....Normal traffic diversion is expected to continue immediately after, i.e. by Monday."
He expressed his government's appreciation to the residents of the state for their cooperation and resilience in the past three weeks of diversion of traffic occasioned by the repair works on the bridge .
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) said it is benefitting immensely from the partial closure of the Bridge, increasing its passenger haul from 7,000 to 10,000 daily.
Lagos District Public Relations Officer, Mr Muyiwa Adekanmbi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, that the gain was the fruit of the company's foresight in adding two mass transit trains to its fleet for the period.
The additional train , according to him, brought to eight, the number of the Corporation's mass transit train in Lagos, meant to ease traffic during the period of closure of the bridge.
The train commenced services on August 8 on the Agbado/Ijoko/Apapa route, connecting Ogun and Lagos states.
Although Adekanmbi would not say how much the Corporation had realised in monetary terms, he said the NRC had fulfilled its promise.
"I had said we would increase our fleet to enable commuters get to their destination in time during the period," Adekanmbi said.
Mr Tunde Taiwo, a civil servant, told NAN that he is one of the beneficiaries of the additional train, as he leaves his car at home and commutes to work in the train.
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