Lagos State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Wednesday assured commuters in the state that barring any exigency, the long-awaited Agege Pen-Cinema Bridge will be fully opened to vehicular movement in about eight weeks.
The project is said to be at 90 per cent ready, with all civil works already completed.
The overpass ascends from Oba Ogunji Road and drops at Oke Koto axis of Agege, while the bridge also opens to the old Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway through Abule Egba and when opened for use, it will bring an end to the discomfort currently being experienced by motorists plying Agege-Abule Egba.
Governor Sanwo-Olu, in the company of his Deputy, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, and members of the State’s cabinet, gave this assurance when he embarked on an unplanned inspection of the project site to assess the level of work done so far.
The Governor was joined in a walk-through on the 1.7 kilometre-long bridge by a multitude of ecstatic residents, who expressed their appreciation on the pace of work on the bridge.
Speaking to reporters during the tour of the project site, Sanwo-Olu expressed satisfaction on the quality of work done, disclosing that the bridge would be fully opened for public use next February.
According to him, the only work left on the bridge is turning intersection improvements at the descending part of the bridge and signalisation for ease of traffic movement.
“We have just finished an inspection and a walkthrough of the Agege Pen-Cinema Bridge. The level of completion of the project is around 90 per cent. All the major brickwork has been done and we are left with two major deliverables, which include cleaning up the intersection and signalisation.
“There is four synchronised signalisation we are expecting to have and each must work together with the other. We are expecting that all these will be done early next year. This is in fulfilment of the promise we made that we will complete all projects abandoned. We are giving the contractor handling this project a maximum of eight weeks to attend to little snags in the project.
“By the second week in January, vehicles can move on the bridge but we may need additional four weeks to complete the signalisation, road painting and demarcation. We are looking forward to fully hand over this project sometimes in February next year,” he stated.
Governor Sanwo-Olu said the state government had started to consider other complementary road construction to be done on the axis to further improve traffic for commuters in the area.
He disclosed that the state was in talks with the Federal Road Maintainance Agency (FERMA) to take on adjoining arterial roads, with the objective to ease the flow of traffic from the bridge down to other areas.
Sanwo-Olu, while addressing a crowd of residents at the site, urged them to be patient while the contractor put final touches on the project, saying that his administration moved to complete the bridge given its strategic importance to easing gridlocks and improving economic activities in Agege and adjoining communities.
The governor also charged them on the need to keep peace in the area, even as he further urged them to protect assets of the government in their neighbourhoods.
