The Lagos State government has embarked on the construction of a pedestrian bridge at Berger bus stop on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, a border community with Ogun State. The project awarded to a Chinese firm, The Guardian learnt, kicked off after Governor Akinwumi Ambode inspected certain traffic-congested areas in Lagos like Berger bus stop, Dopemu junction, Abule-Egbe, Mile 2, Oworonshoki, Mile 12, Alimosho and Apapa bus stops.
The project, expected be completed in 2017, will not only bring reprieve to pedestrians but also ease traffic snarl on the road, as well as check incidence of traffic robbery on the highway.
FOR a long time, crossing from one side of the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway to the other at Berger Bus Stop has been a nightmare for pedestrians because of lack of footbridge.
Not even the high volume of human traffic, who risk their lives daily dashing across the busy highway, has compelled government or its agencies to erect a footbridge at the bus-stop. They had turned a deaf ear to several appeals for a pedestrian bridge, while countless lives have been wasted.
On January 6, 2016, about seven pedestrians escaped death by at the whiskers, leaving them with several degrees of injuries after a commercial bus, with number plate, KSF 948 XF, rammed into them. The bus was heading for Abeokuta in Ogun State and was loaded with passengers, when its brake failed and the driver lost control, ramming into the hapless citizens crossing the expressway.
Apart from the unnecessary waste of human lives, the absence of a pedestrian bridge at the bus stop usually worsen the traffic situation at the Berger end of the expressway, sometimes sprawling up to Ketu.
A pedestrian, Kanayo Udeh, who lives at Omole Phase 2, said the dangerous part is that pedestrians are daily knocked down by hit and run motorists. According to him, the absence of a foot-bridge is the only reason Berger has become a nightmare, as street traders and petty robbers have found it a safe haven to operate because of the traffic.
Another pedestrian, Mrs. Stella Ujah, blamed the absence of the footbridge on the insensitivity of government. “You need to see the chaotic situation at the bus stop, especially in the evening, how children and adults risk their lives attempting to cross the road. What is the essence of government if not to meet the needs of the governed?,” she queried.
