Endless gridlock at Abule Egba…

Motorists and commuters plying Lagos-Abeokuta expressway, particularly Abule-Egba, Alagbado, Sango-Ota residents and environs, are passing through a hard time daily navigating the bottleneck of pain at Abule-Egba. Some residents, motorists and commuters in the Ile-Epo and Abule-Egba axis have described the gridlock as killing.

The spot, which is reputed for its regular lockdown recently attracted the state government’s attention to resolving the intractable logjam with the construction of a dual carriage flyover bridge to alleviate the pains of road users.

The on-going construction has expectedly forced traffic officials to divert the routes for motorists; however, impatient drivers are compounding the already hectic situation by driving against traffic amidst the chaos on the road.

A driver, Hakeem Adebola, said “the traffic situation at Abule Egba has been chaotic, especially now that a construction is ongoing at the bus-stop. The experience has really been bad for us as we spend hours navigating through the area, even at weekends.

“It is not an easy ride for motorists going to Ota from Oshodi to pass through Iyana Ipaja to Abule Egba. The fear of traffic that sometimes stretch from Abule Egba to Ile-Epo bus-stop, sometimes force one to take the other alternative of going through Agege. However, the traffic is almost the same because of the difficulty crossing the junction at Abule Egba to Agege, where usually impatient drivers would have formed almost six lanes instead of the available two to compound the situation.”

Another affected motorist, Solomon Olawale, noted that the traffic situation is worsened by the deplorable state of the road at Ile-Epo bus stop. “Traffic officials should be positioned at strategic locations to ease the congestion now that the ongoing construction has impeded the free flow of traffic in the axis,” he said.

Another driver, Francis Anselm, said: “I passed through Iyana Ipaja to Abule Egba around 11:00 p.m. and it took me more than an hour to get to Abule Egba because of the on-going construction work. I have made up my mind that I would henceforth take the Agege route until the end of the construction,” he said.

Reacting, the Lagos State government said Lagosians plying the road would soon smile. Mr. Yomi Oladapo, Head Public Affairs Unit, Lagos State Public Works Corporation (LSPWC), said the General Manager Ayotunde Sodeinde, has promised that the on-going construction of drainage alignment and the bad portion of the Ile-Epo axis of the expressway would be completed in May.