LAGOS, JULY 26, 2016 – 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 said 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, Mrs Idongesit Davies, she said that government should construct the foot bridge at Iyana Ipaja, due to the high population and new settlements around the axis.
“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,’’ she said.
A trader, Mrs 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.
“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,” she said.
A motorist, Mr Fidelis Upelle, said the gridlock on the highway was due to lack of a footbridge at the Cement bus stop.
“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,” he said.
Also, a teacher, Miss Stephaney Okeke, and a butcher, Mr Mojeed Adegeye, appealed for the completion of the two bridges.
When contacted, the Federal Controller of Works, Lagos State, Mr Godwin Eke, declined to comment on the issue.
However, an authoritative source in the Federal Ministry of Works said that the projects may be considered in the 2017 budget, “as they were not included in the 2016 budget’’.
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.
