Nigeria’s minister of works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, has explained that the construction work going on at the second Niger Bridge will deny residents in the neigbourhood power within a certain time.
While inspecting the progress of the work with the chief of staff to the president, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, minister of labour and productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige, the minister of labour affirmed that the bridge will be ready for use before the end of 2022.
“Work on the bridge has reached 83% completion and is expected to be rounded off in the last quarter of this year, according to the work schedule,” Fashola explained.
According to him, barring any unforeseen contingencies, the first phase of the second Niger Bridge project, which I s expected to gulp N206.2billion has been scheduled for commissioning by October this year.
The project located in the South-East region of Nigeria, is expected to boost economic activities and open up development in that part of the country.
The Second Niger Bridge is being implemented by the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority with funding from the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund.
The project, constructed by Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, basically involves the construction of a 1.6km bridge over the River Niger. scheduled for completion in August 2022. It also involves construction of two secondary bridges at CH25+166 (Amakom Village Road) and CH28+304 (Atani Road) spanning 21.7m each, which have now been completed, demolition of existing flyover and construction of new interchange at CH34+100 (Onitsha-Owerri Road), scheduled for completion in August 2022.
The project also includes the construction of 3.3km approach road on the Asaba side and 7.0km approach road on the Onitsha side of the main bridge.
The road, scheduled for completion in October 2022, and toll plaza at CH25+700 consists of 8 lanes in each direction, scheduled for completion in October 2022, and site clearing of the Right of Way (RoW) including the removal of all bush, trees and shrubs.
The construction work for the project also include soil improvement including soil exchange, geotextile as a filter layer, geotextile for base reinforcement, prefabricated vertical drains (PVD), geotextile Encased Sand Columns (GEC) and geotextile for base reinforcement.
President Muhammadu Buhari approved the second phase of the project on November 2020. The phase entails the construction of Approach Roads 2A (Benin to Asaba Expressway) for N88.1billion and 2B (Onitsha to Enugu Expressway) for N112.1billion. The monies total a contract sum of N200.2billion.
The Approach Roads are expected to drive traffic to the bridge via two 17.5km approach roads on either side of the bridge and enhance the project’s viability.
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