About three weeks after two ministers came to inspect the extent of work done on it, confirmations have come that Julius Berger Plc will soon begin work on Phase II rehabilitation of the ever-busy Oshodi/Apapa Expressway.
Director, Federal Highways (South West), Alhaji Kabir Abdullahi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the rehabilitation of the highway was a top priority for the Federal Government.
About three weeks after two ministers came to inspect the extent of work done on it, confirmations have come that Julius Berger Plc will soon begin work on Phase II rehabilitation of the ever-busy Oshodi/Apapa Expressway.
Director, Federal Highways (South West), Alhaji Kabir Abdullahi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the rehabilitation of the highway was a top priority for the Federal Government.
"We have several projects in the South West on our priority list for 2013 but the immediate ones are the Lagos/Ibadan Access rehabilitation and Phase II of Oshodi/Apapa Expressway reconstruction.
"We are in the process of awarding the contract and we hope that by next week, the process for the award would be completed.
"Julius Berger would handle it and God willing, would start work on the bad portions in the next couple of weeks."
He further said that the company had concluded work on Phase 1, adding that the road had been overlaid and drainage channels constructed and covered.
He added that Messrs Borini Prono Nig. Ltd was currently working on the other stretch of the road.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that minister of transport; Senator Idris Umar and the minister of state for works; Alhaji Bashir Yuguda recently inspected the Apapa/Oshodi expressway where they assured that work would soon resume on the abandoned rehabilitation exercise.
And corroborating Abdullahi, the engineer supervising the project, Mr Godwin Eke, told NAN that the phase II of the project would cover about three kilometres and would be reinforced to cater for the heavy traffic on the road.
Eke, a Deputy Director in the Federal Ministry of Works, said that Phase I started from around Trinity bus stop to Sanya while Phase II would start from Cele area to link Sanya bus stop area on the Apapa side.
He explained that phase II would be constructed with strong materials to accommodate heavy traffic on the axis.
He further said that the ministry was able to save some money from the phase one project which it used to repair some portions awarded to Messer Borini Prono.
"Beachland Estate around Trinity was originally not part of the project but containers were falling everyday.
"It was supposed to have been done by Borini Prono but because of funds they could not handle it.
"From our savings, we decided to repair Beeachland, the carriage way, did a culvert and a large drainage to empty the water.
“We also carried out repairs on some portions of the carriage way that was really bad," he said.
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