Abiola Peters
A seven-day Stop Work Order has been issued to the contractor handling the Sagamu to Iperu Road Reconstruction Project for not executing the specified design and slow pace of work.
Minister of Works, Mr David Umahi who made this pronouncement to newsmen during an On the Spot Assessment of the project, condemned the stone base work and ordered that it is redone within seven days or the contract will be revoked and the thirty percent mobilisation already paid will be retrieved.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government is to carry out Emergency Repairs on the first five Overpass Bridges along the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway due to damages done to the beams by high mobile vehicles.
Minister of Works, Mr David Umahi, who announced this after an inspection of the bridges, said he had ordered the immediate closure of one of them, Alapako bridge, due to the severity of the damage to the beams.
Mr Umahi explained that he has directed the redesigns for the emergency works which is to ultimately increase the headroom of the damaged bridges to six point five metres for easy passage of vehicles with high attachments.
According to Minister, a presentation of the designs will be made to President Bola Tinubu for the funding of the emergency repairs, assuring that sufficient announcements will be made to the public before the commencement of work on the bridges, which will require moderate diversion of traffic.
On the capsized dredger under Eko bridge, Mr Umahi said the owner has been given two weeks to remove it or he will be arrested, because the machine poses danger to the infrastructure, having damaged one of the piers already.
He added that the contractor working on rehabilitation of Third Mainland Bridge had sent an official warning on the danger of dredging to the underwater infrastructure, and he requested for the cooperation of the public through calls to address violators.
The Minister of Works had in his entourage the Director Bridges and Highway Designs, Mr Bebe Obioha, Controller Works Lagos, Mrs Olukorede Kesha and her Ogun State counterpart, Mr Micheal Komolafe, other senior Engineers of the Ministry and Heads of Contractor – firms.