It would seem Lagos State government has not totally jettisoned the idea of the construction of the much desired 22 kilometres Fourth Mainland Bridge, which, in addition to similar existing infrastructure in the state, will link the island to the mainland part of the commercial city.
What is, however, certain is that the idea can no longer be actualised through its original plan, as developments in the last couple of years that the design had been left to gather dust, have made the construction of the bridge along the old alignment practically impossible to accomplish.
This is revealed as Ben Akabueze, the state commissioner for budget and economic planning, Tuesday, while giving a breakdown of the 2014 budget size of N489.690 billion, said the state government is completing two more Independent Power Plants (IPPs) sited within the Ikeja GRA precinct and Lekki under the 2014 budget. The state late 2013 switched on the Alausa embedded IPP which now supplies 24-hour electricity to the state secretariat and other government facilities around the secretariat. Two others had a few years back been accomplished at Akute and Lagos Island.
The 2014 budget which focuses principally on completion of ongoing projects including roads, bridges, jetties, among others, as well as maintenance of existing infrastructure and facilities consists of N255.025 billion (52 percent) capital and N234.66 (48 percent) recur¬rent expenditure. Other details of the budget as ex¬plained by Akabueze include N466.506 billion total revenue, N87.921 billion personnel cost; N146.744 overhead cost; N23.184 billion capital receipts.
But reacting to question raised on the long proposed Fourth Mainland Bridge, Femi Hamzat, the commissioner for works and infrastructure, said the construction of the bridge along its original alignment which would have seen it linking to Pan Atlantic University (Lagos Business School) in Lekki, can no longer be achieved because it would involve the demolition of 318 buildings in all.
Hamzat said some of the structures are expensive modern houses that may have gulped a lot of money to put up. He said if the bridge is to be constructed along its planned alignment all these buildings would have to give way.
Aside the buildings, the commissioner also hinted of cost as another major constraint to embarking on the project. According to him, it will take at least N40 billion to construct one kilometre of the 22 kilometres bridge. This sums up to about N880 billion aside what would be required to pay compensa¬tion if those 318 buildings are to be demolished.
Against this background, Hamzat said the state is working on “a different alignment” for the bridge, which he said it would not make public for now, “to avoid people rushing again to build along the new alignment as done to the old alignment.”
There are currently three bridges linking the island and mainland parts of the state. There are Eko Bridge, Carter Bridge and Third Mainland. But notwithstanding the existence of these three, commuting between the island and the mainland can sometimes be a Herculean task due to traffic congestion on the bridges. The idea of the Fourth Main¬land Bridge was mooted to complement the existing similar facilities.
