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The Federal Government has suspended the planned closure of Eko Bridge in Lagos.
Minister of Works and Housing, Senator Dave Umahi disclosed this on Tuesday during an inspection tour of the bridge.
He said the suspension was to reduce hardship on the citizenry that would have been caused by the closure of the bridge.
Umahi thanked President Bola Tinubu for prioritising the safety and comfort of Nigerians.
“We directed that this bridge be closed. That was about two weeks back, but our caring President Bola Tinubu is very much concerned about the closure of this Eko Bridge.
“He has asked me to come back here and take a second look at that decision so that we don’t induce much hardship on Nigerians,” the minister said.
He said his team also conducted a re-assessment of the bridge’s strength and found that the suspension of its closure was in order.
“We have done our technical evaluation in line with the President’s directive. Putting safety over and above every decision, we have seen that, for now, we are safe, but we won’t get to a situation where any Nigerian on this bridge will not be safe. We have agreed on three procedures,” he said.
Umahi disclosed that remedial work would be done on the bridge within four months.
“We have agreed on remedial work that could be carried out within four months by Buildwell, and that is by doing additional piling and a pie cap and joining it to the cracked one to bypass the section that is cracked.
“That can lead us to open the entire bridge and when that is done, we will wait for the entire design whereby the entire slab within that section will be lifted and then we will demolish what was cracked,” the minister stated.
