John Ibe, the Director, South West of the Federal Ministry of Works, said on Thursday that the rehabilitation work on the Apapa/Oshodi Expressway in Lagos State would be completed before January 2015.
Ibe said this in Lagos at a meeting between oil terminal operators and Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, the contractor rehabilitating the expressway.
He said: “We are here to address the problem of the gridlock.
“We are here with the stakeholders to find a solution on how the contractors could move in and do their work.
“I am happy to say that we have succeeded.
“The contractor is moving immediately to start work.
“We are sure that in no time the work will be completed.
“In a couple of weeks, they will finish the job, if access is given to them.
“From the meeting here, you can see that Julius Berger was ready to work but there was no access for them to come in and work.”
Godwin Eke, Federal Controller of Works for Lagos State, said that Julius Berger would complete the Creek road, Apapa soon, after which it will embark on the repair of the major road linking the Ibru Oil Terminal.
Eke said: “From now on, Julius Berger is moving back to site even though they’ve been working around Creek Road but now they are coming to finish up this access around Ibru Terminal.
”My impression is that they are coming back to finish the access to Ibru terminal but this is most critical.
“You heard them in the meeting say they are moving back.
“It is not that they’ve not been working.
“They’ve been working but from other locations like Creek Road.
“The major problem was lack of communication.
“Now we are communicating, things will change.
“They are cooperating.”
The General Manager of Ibru Oil Terminal, Victor Enebeli, said that the operators would give the contractor maximum cooperation to complete the contract.
The Project Manager of Julius Berger Construction Company, Wolfgang Panzer, said it was possible to complete the Ibru Road off Apapa/Oshodi Expressway “if the access road is free”.
Panzer said: “It’s the other way.
“When I was coming here, I was surprised that the whole carriage lane is free.
“So it works somehow.
“It works and the experience is from time to time before when we have even stakeholders’ stakeholders meeting.
“I remember two or three stakeholders meeting we had before and for two, three days, the main carriage way was free.
“So it is possible somehow that the access to our construction site is free if we see a situation as today that the main carriage way is free.
“If we find a situation as today, we can work in the night.
“Working in the night is not a constraint for Julius Berger.
“There are several other constraints that we have when we are working during the night time.
“Night time is not an option for us because all the service units have to be available like machine, techniques, service lorries and all these things.
“We have no possibility to shift them day and night.”