Some road users in Lagos on Tuesday appealed to the Federal Government to complete the pedestrian bridge projects at the busy Iyana Ipaja and Cement Bus Stops on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway to save lives.
The road users told the News Agency of Nigeria in interviews in Lagos that the completion of the foot bridges would ease gridlock and reduce hardships faced by users of the road.
An event planner, Idongesit Davies, told NAN that government should construct the foot bridge at Iyana Ipaja due to the high population and new settlements around the axis.
Davies said: “People from Iyana-Iba, Egbeda, Ipaja, Ayobo, Agege, Ojodu, Sango to mention but a few use this road as access route.
“Iyana-Ipaja has become a major terminus and deserves more than one pedestrian bridge.
“Government should not abandon this very important project because it will save a lot of lives.”
A trader, Bisola Adeniran, also appealed to the government to construct, as a matter of urgency, the Iyana-Ipaja foot bridge to reduce the hardships of pedestrians on the road.
Adeniran said: “It is not always easy for us to cross the highway with our goods.
“Sometimes we fall with the wheel barrows and we plead with government should help us.”
A motorist, Fidelis Upelle, said the gridlock on the highway was due to lack of a footbridge at the Cement Bus Stop.
Upelle said: “You will agree with me that it is not possible to cross the road at the Cement Bus Stop freely and most of the traffic that usually stretches from there down to Iyana-Ipaja is because of the absence of a visible pedestrian bridge.”
Also, a teacher, Stephaney Okeke, and a butcher, Mojeed Adegeye, appealed for the completion of the two bridges.
When contacted, the Federal Controller of Works, Lagos State, Godwin Eke, declined to comment on the issue.
However, an authoritative source in the Federal Ministry of Works told NAN that the projects may be considered in the 2017 budget “as they were not included in the 2016 budget”.
NAN recalls that the Iyana-Ipaja foot bridge project, which began in 2014, was initially slowed down by litigation.
The contractors handling the project later abandoned the site over funding issues and their inability to relocate some services in its right of way.
The Cement Bus Stop project on the other hand began in the same year 2014, but the work was stopped due to some construction errors.
NAN.
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