‘69 Buildings have to be Demolished if Fourth Mainland Bridge is built now’

Lagos State government says it cannot go ahead now to construct the proposed Fourth  Mainland Bridge having discovered, to its surprise, that no fewer than 69 buildings have to be demolished if the original alignment for the bridge is followed.

In what the state government has described as “speculative property acquisition and development”, many people have erected massive structures on the right of way for the bridge and this has necessitated shifting its original alignment, leading to further delay in the construction of the bridge that is aimed to link the island to some parts of the mainland including Ikorodu and Badore.

“The state government has to redesign the bridge in order to avoid demolishing buildings erected on the right of way”, Femi Hamzat, the state’s Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, explained at the 2015 Ministerial Briefing  in Ikeja recently.

“We conducted a survey to establish the right of way. We looked at various options. The option that seemed best for us has about 4km of bridge on the water”, Hamzat disclosed, lamenting that  when they started the survey and enumeration, a lot of people had built unbelievable number of buildings there.

“I think people were speculative in anticipation of the bridge. I think the demolition we have to do is now about 69 buildings, so we have to rethink our design because the amount of compensation we have to pay  will run into billions of Naira if we have to do that”, the commissioner  reasoned.

Affirming the state government’s commitment to building the bridge, Hamzat said a new alignment was currently being outlined, taking into consideration the Lekki Free Trade Zone and other multi-national companies coming into that axis.

With a mandate to develop and facilitate qualitative first class infrastructure to support the state’s vision of being Africa’s model mega city and global economic and financial hub, the commissioner hinted that his ministry, in the past 365 days, had pursued infrastructure development with vigour.

The state, he said, believed that without infrastructure, it wouldn’t be talking about a megacity, pointing out that in building infrastructure, they were also creating jobs, spurring investment and increasing the GDP of communities who were beneficiaries of the infrastructure development.

He noted that the state was increasing in population, while its land size remained static which has necessitated the expansion of existing roads infrastructure with enormous challenges.

“The roads expansion are carried out in built up areas; so the challenge is not only about the construction, but also litigation. We don’t want to destroy existing infrastructure in order to create new ones. So, as much as possible, we try to strike a balance in doing all these”, he said. 

During the period under review, the commissioner said the ministry continued with its ‘Strategic Inner Roads Development Programme, and the Grading and Surface Dressing’ concept, pointing out that at the heart of both programmes was the need to improve connectivity and ensure efficient traffic flow.

As a result, from 2011 to February 2015, about 431 roads totaling 472,547 kilometres were constructed and rehabilitated; 80 roads totaling 46,191 kilometres were graded and surface-dressed, while construction and rehabilitation were  on–going on 201 roads totaling 237,771 kilometres.