By NewsBits
For the umptieth time, the completion date for the multi billion-naira 2nd Niger Bridge connecting Delta and Anambra States, which was started by the administration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and was continued by the current administration led by Muhammadu Buhari has been shifted from the earlier scheduled date of October 2022 to the first quarter of 2024.
Nigeria started playing politics with the 2nd Niger Bridge since the days of former military leader, Ibrahim Babangida. The eastern part of Nigeria is marginalised with little or no federal government projects, a development that have led to all manners of agitations in the east.
This implies that President Muhammadu Buhari, whose government made the completion of the 2nd Nigeria bridge as part of their campaign promise would not deliver such critical asset before leaving office next year by May 2023.
The Acting Federal Controller of Works in Anambra State, Mr. Seyi Martins, who hinted of the new completion date however said work on the bridge had reached 95 per cent completion. Martins, who spoke when members of the Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) toured the bridge said the first phase of the project, which was the bridge proper, has substantially been completed.
According to him, what was remaining was the final asphalt surfacing on the Asaba end carriageway lane. He said the asphalt wearing course had been fully laid on the Anambra end carriageway lane, just as other fittings, including the streetlights, the handrails, and the parapet wall had been completed.
Martins said the bridge, which is about 1.7km parallel to the existing bridge, was a dual carriageway with three lanes on both sides measuring about 1.6km in length, while the total length of the project was 11.9km.
He also informed the COREN members that the steel guard rails were complete and that the bridge was set for vehicular traffic. He stated further that the toll plaza area was almost completed, adding that what was left was the installation of toll booth canopies.
He said: “The bridge project was expected to be delivered by the end of December 2022, but there is a second phase which is a 3.3km road approach on the Delta side and 7km of approach road on the Anambra side that is yet to commence.
“But the government has deemed it fit that upon completion of the first phase, it will be open to traffic. At the Onitsha end, there is an interchange at Oba, where motorists can access the bridge, while at the Asaba end, there is a link road we are constructing to enable travellers to access the bridge from Benin-Onitsha road”.
The Controller added that the bridge could be accessed from the interchange being constructed at Oba on the Onitsha-Owerri Road to connect traffic on the Asaba-Benin expressway pending the completion of the second phase.
