Tanker and trailer drivers have returned to the roads leading into the Apapa Port Complex, despite the recent 7-day vacate order issued recently by the Federal Government, to them, to stay away from the corridor to facilitate rehabilitation of the two-kilometre dual carriage road, scheduled to begin next week Monday.
After a few days of temporary relief, thought to have been occasioned by an earlier ultimatum by the Federal Government to truck owners to vacate roads leading in and out of Apapa, residents and business owners woke up Wednesday morning to yet an unpleasant experience of traffic gridlock.
The entire stretch of Ijora-Marine Beach, inward Apapa, was again taken over by scores of petroleum tankers and container-laden trucks, which grounded traffic flow, forcing motorists to spend painful hours on the bridge against their wish.
The situation has been compounded by the rains, which continue to wash away the palliative measures put in place to aid vehicular movement pending full commencement of work by AG Dangote, the contractor to handle the rehabilitation of the collapsed Ijora-Wharf Road.
Babatunde Fashola, minister of Works, Power and Housing, three weeks ago, handed over the road (stretching two kilometres from the bridge, opposite Area ‘B’ Police Station to Apapa port) to AG Dangote, Flour Mills Nigeria Plc, and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for rehabilitation, and ordered the removal of trucks from the road, to enable the contractor, AG Dangote, mobilise to site.
The companies are undertaking the project at the cost of N4.3 billion, as part of their corporate social responsibility to their host community.
Responding during a telephone interview on the collaboration between all the stakeholders involved in handling the road rehabilitation project including the Army, Navy, Police, LASTMA and the FRSC, to ensure free traffic flow, Wednesday, Hyginus Omeje, Lagos State Sector Commander of the FRSC said a Special Task Force would soon be set up to ensure orderliness.
He expressed hope that all hands would be on deck between all the parties involved in managing traffic along the affected corridors without interplay of compromise and sabotage.
The federal authorities against their earlier position that the bridge outward Ijora, would remain closed to heavy duty trucks, opened it last week, as the contractor prepares to mobilise to site.
“I don’t think that it will be feasible for the full rehabilitation work on the Ijora-Wharf road slated for 7 July to start on that date. By our calculation, the full rehabilitation work would commence next week on the 10th of July,” said Remi Ogungbemi, chairman of Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMARTO) in a telephone interview with BusinessDay.
Ogungbemi, who blamed the traffic gridlock on Apapa road on Wednesday, on the heavy downpour, said the AG Dangote, which is the contractor in charge of the project has already started the palliative work but that most of the effort was being washed away by the rains.
“Something is clear, and that is the fact that AG Dangote is ready for the rehabilitation work but the rain is disturbing them seriously. The downpour is a natural phenomenon, which the contractor cannot help but that would delay the take-off of the full rehabilitation works,” he said.
On the earlier directive given to the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) to design a traffic management plan for the construction, he said that LASTMA and all other parties involved were yet to come with a traffic management plan. He blamed that on the serious consideration being given to the fact that normal port business would be on-going while road rehabilitation is on.
“The port will not be shut down because the roads are being rehabilitated; therefore, the authorities are being careful and taking their time to come out with a traffic management plan that would factor these things in. Also, the plan would consider the fact that Apapa residents must have access in and out of their homes while work is on-going,” he added.
Tokunbo Korodo, Lagos zonal chairman of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), welcomed the opening of the bridge to tankers, saying it would facilitate petroleum products distribution, and restated the resolve the of the union and petroleum tankers to maintain the law.
MIKE OCHONMA, JOSHUA BASSEY & AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
