The Minister for Power, Works and
Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has clarified that the Third Mainland Bridge in
Lagos will be shut down for only three days, starting from July 27.
Fashola said this on Monday while
addressing some confusion over the period for the closure of the bridge, on
Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
According to the Minister, the
bridge will only be closed for three days, contrary to reports that it will be
closed for 27 months.
“I think somebody mistook the
date 27th of July for 27 months, I don’t know how that came about but there was
a signed statement from my office and it didn’t contain 27 months,” Fashola
said.
The three-day closure, according
to him, will enable the contractors assess the true state of the facility,
after which repair works will commence by the end of the year or at the start
of next year (2019).
“The statement we put out was
that it was going to be closed for three days, from the 27th of July.
“We were torn between maintenance
and safety and people’s convenience but essentially, the first three days at
the end of this month as issued in our press statement, will be for
investigative work to be conducted to assess the current condition.
“There is a procurement for
maintenance that has been approved but between that time and now, some things
may have changed so we wanted to do an examination again just to be sure that
there has been no material deterioration beyond what we procured.
“After that, our engineers and
contracting firms will then lay out the plan of works.
“Some of the equipment and
materials have to be imported, either later in the year or early next year,
then we will be able to start the repair.
“That will imminently compel some
closure as we have had in the past when I was governor. We closed it for about
12 weeks but (this time) we will try to reduce the period of closure as much as
possible,” he added.
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