Umahi: Why planned closure of Eko Bridge was suspended

By Lydia Chigozie-Ngwakwe

The Minister of Works, Sen. Dave Umahi has attributed the suspension of planned closure of Eko Bridge in Lagos State to concerns raised by President Bola Tinubu on the likely effect of the action on motorists and residents of the state.

Umahi said this during an inspection of the bridge on Tuesday.

“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,” he said.

The minister said that his team re-assessed the strength of the bridge on Monday and confirmed that the closure could be suspended at the moment.

“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 any situation that any Nigerian on this bridge will not be safe.

“We have agreed on three procedures.”

According to Umahi, the first procedure is not to close the bridge now but monitor the progression or otherwise of the crack.

He said that the crack was not progressing either arithmetically or geometrically at the moment.

“No progression so far. We are comfortable, but crack can occur anytime. I will return here to reassess it.”

The minister also said that there would be remedial work on the bridge.

“We have agreed on remedial work that could be carried out within four months by Buildwell, and that is by doing additional piling and 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 demolish what was cracked.”

Umahi thanked Tinubu for efforts to advance Nigeria.

“I can assure you that the president means well, and we owe him prayers and support, and God will take us there.” (NAN)