Senate Committee on Works has decried the slow pace of work and the delay in the completion of the Trailer Park being constructed opposite Tin Can Island Second Gate on Apapa Oshodi Expressway.
Contract for the construction of this park was awarded to Borini Prono about eight years ago along with the reconstruction of a portion of the Apapa-Expressway to take away about 400 trailers from the expressway and reduce the gridlock that is today a major feature of Apapa.
When BusinessDay visited the construction site in the company of members of the Senate Committee on Works who were on inspection tour of roads construction sites in Lagos on Sunday, the contractor assured the park would be completed by the end of December this year.
This, however, sharply contradicts an earlier pronouncement by Babatunde Fashola, minister for power, works and housing, that the park would be open for use on November 17, 2018, when reconstruction work would commence on Apapa-Oshodi Expressway to be undertaken by Dangote Group.
Dangote will be spending about N72 billion on the expressway in lieu of taxes it would have paid to the Federal Government and, according to Fashola, the group would be joined by two or three other construction firms to speed up completion of the reconstruction work.
During the inspection of the trailer park, Kabiru Gaya, chairman, Senate Committee, said, “We are not happy with the speed of work here; we expect the contractors to move fast even though there is an additional work. Money has been paid, and the shoreline has to be constructed in order to protect the park.
READ ALSO: Covid-19: Lagos begins gradual reopening of relaxation centres
“We insist this project must be finished and the contractors are saying that by the end of this year we should be able to commission the park. We saw that facilities there are not good enough; there are only about 20-40 toilets; there could be more; there can be a restaurant, there should also be a small clinic. But even though the protection of the facility (shoreline) has not been done, we must commission that project by the end of this year.”
Gainrranco Albertazzi, joint managing director, Borini Prono, also assured that the park without the shoreline aspect would be completed in December this year, saying, “We have reached about 97 percent completion; what remains is asphalt. For the shoreline, we are going to import some materials.”
Apapa Oshodi Expressway is one of the only two major routes to the Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports. The second is the Ijora-Apapa-Wharf Bridge, which terminates on the Apapa-Wharf Road. For more than six months now, this second route has been closed to motorists on the outbound lane, causing neck-breaking gridlock.
This lane has been undergoing repairs at two major spots—Leventis and Ijora ends of the bridge. Though work has resumed on those spots, motorists have been going through hell to get out of the port city.
“To work on the Leventis end, the contractors had to import high-quality steel and, therefore, I will advise that the state and federal governments work together to prevent a situation where there will be fire on the bridge. The contractors have promised us that the bridge will be ready in the next three months; we hope that can reduce the gridlock in that area also,” Gaya said.
Meanwhile, the congestion and gridlock in and around Apapa have led to high haulage cost and, in the last six to 12 months, there has been about 280 percent hike in this cost.
BusinessDay’s recent survey reveals that it costs importers about N600,000 to transport a 40-foot container from APM Terminal in Apapa to Ibafo, a distance of about 90 kilometres. This is against the initial average cost of about N160,000 for the same distance.
Other ongoing project sites visited by the committee were the rehabilitation of Ikorodu-Shagamu road in Lagos/Ogun states, construction of access road to NNPC depot, Mosimi, construction of Lagos-Ibadan expressway and the rehabilitation of the third mainland bridge.
“We have gone to 26 states and Lagos is the 27th and from here we will inspect some other states”, Gaya said, disclosing that the aim of the inspection was to have oversight, supervise and to make sure that the contractors were meeting expectations.
