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Thomas Balzuweit, the company’s regional manager, West, who made the call at the opening of a section of the expressway recently, Lagos-Sagamu Interchange, also urged motorists to obey all road signs and symbols for the safety of everyone, adding that road construction globally comes with challenges not peculiar to Nigeria alone.
He assured that Julius Berger had an effective traffic management system that needed the cooperation of motorists to work, adding that diversion and adequate warning signs had been put on various strategic locations on site which are constantly being reviewed for efficiency.
“We believe in very robust and very professional traffic management system that we put in place to channel traffic flow at construction site. This is being done with our safety team,” he said.
Adedamola Kuti, Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, encouraged motorists to appreciate what was happening on Lagos-Ibadan expressway, noting that the Lagos-Sagamu Interchange was the busiest in Africa. This is because the road carries the whole traffic from Lagos to other parts of the country.
“Of all the traffic from Lagos, only 30 percent continue to Ibadan; from Lagos to Sagamu interchange, 40 percent of the traffic would have dropped off. This comprises people who live around the axis and others accessing religious bodies who have their camp grounds along the road.
Kuti noted further that 60 percent of vehicles that makes it to Sagamu Interchange, 30 percent divert towards Sagamu-Ore-Benin road, leaving only 30 percent traffic moving towards Ibadan.
He acknowledged that a lot of hard-working Nigerians use the road daily, advising road users not to be patient. “This is construction zone. At construction areas, nobody should drive at 120kmph. If people drive at 50kmph, there will not be any problem.”
Kuti attributed breakdown of vehicles to people driving vehicles that are not road worthy. Such vehicles break down and cause problems to other road users. He urged vehicle owners to always maintain their vehicles before plying the road.
As the MFM Junction of the expressway has been reconstructed and now finally opened to traffic, the controller appealed to the general public and road users to be patient with government and Julius Berger while other sections of the expressway are being constructed.
He explained that the section of the road from Lagos to the Sagamu Interchange was 40 per cent completed due to additional work to the project, including flyovers, underpasses, pedestrian bridges, etc which became necessary as a result of the religious houses around.
Clement Oladele, Ogun State sector commander, FRSC, noted that old vehicles and indiscipline of some Nigerians are responsible for the accidents that occur on that road, especially at the construction site.
He recalled that half of the deaths recorded last year on the Ogun State axis of the road was due to road accidents mostly occurring at the construction sites.
“In Ogun State, of the 272 deaths recorded in 2018, half of them was at construction zones”, he said, pointing out that because of the high number of vehicles that use the Lagos-Sagamu Interchange, any vehicle that breaks down usually causes serious gridlock, because the road was still under construction.
CHUKA UROKO
