Bridge rehabilitation may not end Apapa gridlock, says NSE chair

The chairman, Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Sunny Igholegwono, has said that Ijora, Eko, and other bridges leading to Apapa Wharf under rehabilitation might not end what he described as eternal gridlock on the road owing to the containers and trucks heading into Tin Can Island port.

He made this known during his visit to Ijora Bridge to mark one of NSE’s annual programmes tagged ‘Management of Pandemic – Engineering Perspective.’

According to him, what is causing gridlock on the road are the big trucks and tankers trying to find their way to Tin Can Island port. “Those trucks are causing more harm than good to other motorists on the road, which may continue after the completion of the bridge if intelligent measures to curtail the menace is not deployed.”

Efforts to bring sanity to the port axis have yielded little in the past with different administrations pulling its strength to end the gridlock.

The former Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, who headed a presidential committee set up by Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, during the first term of President Muhammadu Buhari, referred to the situation as a “national disaster”. He said the police command and other stakeholders had deployed 3,500 officials to the affected areas in order to ease the situation but it couldn’t solve the problem.