30 September 2008
Lagos — Motorists and commuters yesterday in Lagos heaved a sigh of relief with the opening of the Third Mainland Bridge closed to traffic for 57 days.
The bridge was closed on August 2, to allow for repairs on some parts which were reported to be vibrating during vehicular movement. Minister of Transport, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke, had, at a news conference in Abuja, announced that the bridge would be opened midnight Monday.
A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who monitored the traffic situation on the bridge, observed that there was a free flow of traffic.
The development had consequently reduced the pressure on some of the alternative routes used by motorists while the closure lasted.
Mrs Isabel Egwu, a businesswoman, told NAN that the re-opening of the bridge was worth celebrating, describing the period of closure as a nightmare.
Egwu recalled the toll on her business during the closure, saying it was "monumental". Mr Johnson Emeka, a commercial bus driver on Obalende-Ikeja route, was full of praises for the government and the contractors for finishing the work ahead of time.
Emeka, said the closure brought untold hardships to both commuters and drivers, as most of them oftentimes wasted greater part of the day in traffic.
He, however, said that it was a welcome development, as failure to carry out the repair would have put the lives of users at risk. Another commercial bus driver, Mr Sunday Onyishi, told NAN that it was quite commendable, adding that with the re-opening, normalcy would return to the metropolis.
"During the closure, we recorded huge losses because we could not make as many trips as we used to in our Obalende-Ikeja route. "As a result, we had to increase our fare from N150 to N200 and it was really difficult then for everybody," he said.
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