With scant regard for the agonising plight of road users, Julius Berger Plc, the contractor saddled with the reconstruction of a section of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, has invented misery for motorists and commuters. For the past one week or so, when the construction company demarcated a part of the road, travelling has become excruciating. Both sides of the road are under perpetual gridlock from morning until night. There is no excuse for this hardship. It is countervailing government’s noble intention to rebuild the infrastructure into a farce. It is imperative that proper planning of traffic management is carried out to maintain reasonably safe passage of motor vehicles through the work zone.
Clearly, sitting in a vehicle and inching along at a slow pace and getting occasionally stuck to or from one’s destination is not an experience to be cherished. In normal times, the 127-kilometre Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is described as one of Africa’s busiest, taking traffic in and out of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, to the other parts of the country. Imports, exports, petroleum, manufacturing and agricultural products pass through it. But Julius Berger’s arrangements for traffic management to minimise the expected stress appear inadequate. The result is utter chaos. Most times, the bedlam spans Mowe to Ibafo, but the backlog stretches to the Long Bridge for those travelling out of Lagos.
In what has become a routine experience on the expressway, motorists are delayed for hours unduly. Business meetings are disrupted; workers resume work late and medical emergencies are imperilled in the chaos. Travellers and residents of the local communities have thus been groaning under the weight of the relentless congestion, which is exacerbated by a flow that the Federal Road Safety Corps estimates at 25,000 vehicles per hour. This is a heavy price to pay for official insensitivity.
Ordinarily, repair works should be expected since the expressway was first inaugurated 40 years ago, but the contractor is going about this in a disorganised manner. In contrast, the Reynolds Construction Company, which is handling the second section of the road from Sagamu to Ibadan, has implemented a more efficient road management method. First, it undertook the repairs of the failed portions of the road, allowing traffic to flow before embarking on the reconstruction aspect.
The Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing is also complicit. In organised societies, temporary traffic control is a major component of road contract process. This will take care of the nature of the traffic within the work zone, traffic speeds, vehicle types and their percentages, peak hour volumes, corridor criticality and emergency response strategy. Roads & Bridges, a United States-based magazine, states that the Netherlands, Germany and Austria embarked on the construction of a highway that connects the three countries in 2013, using the intelligence transport system. Through this, they facilitated communication between vehicles and the roadway to reduce delays. In our case here, motorists are left at the mercy of construction firms. Insensitively, decades-old turning points have been blocked.
The security agencies, instead of managing safety and security, compound the chaos. With sirens blaring, police and soldiers irresponsibly lead lawbreakers in violating a one-way road at the peak of traffic lockdowns. Security agents are supposed to obey traffic laws and help manage congestions.
Works minister, Babatunde Fashola, should develop a template on how to minimise traffic impact on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway during the reconstruction period. Henceforth, construction work zone plans for safe passage of pedestrians and the motoring public during maintenance and construction activities on all roadways, from local roads to interstate highways, should be enforced. There is nothing in the construction rule book that says every road construction or reconstruction must bring hardship and despair to road users.
For this gridlock to reduce, Julius Berger should provide alternative routes where feasible and collaborate with law enforcement agencies to implement and enforce traffic regulations, reduced speed zones, parking controls, and incident management.
Security agents should stop their impunity. The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, should deploy a special team of police to monitor these points on the road during the repairs. This is because road users are exposed to attacks by hoodlums. The FRSC should clamp down on one-way driving and motorcyclists, who flout the law and face on-coming traffic at will, should not be spared. Julius Berger can also limit work during peak commuter rush times or when traffic is heaviest and work at night when fewer people are on the road.
Once and for all, the Federal Government should put the reconstruction work behind it. Despite its critical nature, funding has been a major problem with the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Reconstruction was first launched in 2009 under the late Umaru Yar’Adua. Goodluck Jonathan entrenched the charade in 2014. The cost was put at N167 billion then. The current revamping by the Muhammadu Buhari administration has come in spurts. In April, the Federal Executive Council approved an additional N64 billion for Section I of the road. Such an important asset is worth every kobo invested therein. The Federal Government should fund the project and deliver it in double-quick time.
