3RD MAINLAND BRIDGE: POSERS FOR FG AS REPAIRS TURN DRAIN PIPE

The Lagos Third Mainland Bridge, the 10th longest in the world and longest in Africa, has become a source of fear and apprehension to Nigerians, especially because of the apparent defects in its aching structure which repairs continue to drain the nation’s treasury.

Constructed in two sections, which connect the Mainland to Lagos Island, the Third Mainland Bridge was commissioned by former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, in 1990, after the completion of its Adekunle-Oworonshoki end.

Measuring 11.8 kilometres, the bridge remains the longest in sub-Sahara Africa, with the other two sections apart from the Adekunle-Oworonsoki end being the Eko and Carter bridges. It connects the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, as well as midway the bridge to the Herbert Macaulay Way, Yaba, indicating its quintessential socio-economic and strategic relevance to Lagos, the nation’s economic nerve-centre, and the whole country.

However, now shrouded in controversy after several repair works and maintenance contracts, the bridge has become the cause for concern and debate.

Indeed, the first contract for maintenance and repair works carried out on the bridge was in the last quarter of 2007, costing N745 million, 17 years after its commissioning.

According to a report on the situation survey and investigation carried out by the Federal Ministry of Works on the bridge in 2007, twelve expansion joints were in need of repairs with four in very critical conditions. According to the report, the joints showed advance decay of the sheer connectors linking adjacent decks which required urgent attention. The report further stated that in consideration of its national economic importance and its impact on the people of Lagos State and Nigeria, the Federal Government awarded the contract for the repairs of the four critical joints in 2008 which were carried out between August 2 and September 2, 2008.

The report further indicated that in line with the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration on the road sector, particularly the maintenance of existing road infrastructure, contract for the repairs of the remaining eight expansion joints was awarded on December 14, 2011, to the same contractor, Messrs Borini Prono &  Company (Nigeria) Limited with a completion period of four months.

Adding these monies to the N290.745 million now approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for the underwater surveillance to be carried out by Messrs ICECON (Nigeria) Limited, there are fears that the bridge may have turned to another drain pipe of the nation’s resources.

Specifically, investigations by the Daily Newswatch indicated alleged deliberate attempt by some political figures in the corridors of power to ensure that the maintenance of the bridge becomes a resource base from which private pockets can be continually lined.

In particular, civil engineering experts and other real estate stakeholders are worried over the plight of the users of this critical national infrastructure. They told Daily Newswatch that it is disheartening that the multi-billion naira bridge, aimed at improving traffic access and flow along the Lagos Island-Mainland Corridor in either direction, has degenerated into a source of regular fears and protracted alarm owing to structural defaults.

Mr. Ebunoluwa Adegoke, a civil engineering practitioner based in Lagos, who said the fears expressed over the state of the bridge was not misplaced, explained that a dangerous trend had been set by the managers who neglected the bridge for more than 17 years before the first major repair works were carried out in 2007.

“We live in an era in which practically anything that can be imagined can be built; from artificial islands, floating hotels, skyscrapers, massive underwater tunnels and bridges spanning once-unthinkable lengths. But great construction projects come with complications, including cost overruns, construction accidents, massive maintenance and repair budgets and even utter disaster. The Third Mainland Bridge Project is not an exception and since the bridge is the longest of three bridges connecting Lagos Island to the mainland, a regular annual check is expected on it from the day it was commissioned in 1990,” he said.

According to him, “The late commencement of routine checks has taken its toll on the structural well-being of the bridge. The uneven pavement and displacement of some of the piers on the structure despite the 2012 repair works are indications of more serious structural defects and problems.

“The bridge was built with slabs which had joints in-between the spaces and supported by springs that could contrast and expand due to movement. But due to lack of effective maintenance, which spanned a period of 17 years after the commissioning, the joints in-between the slabs had gradually torn apart and people could actually see the lagoon through the holes in the joints. This necessitated the first repair works that were carried out in 2007.”

Perhaps more worrisome is the shoddy repair works on the bridge which have again and again necessitated another no sooner one is said to have been completed, with the fresh underwater surveillance contract approved by the Federal Government now enmeshed in serious controversies.

The contract, which is for comprehensive underwater inspection, assessment and survey of the Lagos bridge, is worth N290.745 million and was approved by the Federal Executive Council just recently following reports of excessive vibration of the bridge under heavy traffic.

According to a project and construction management consultant with Centbourre Company Limited, Mr. Edward Ugochukwu, the latest Federal Government’s contract of N290.745 million is clearly an indictment of the ability of the managers of the critical infrastructure to effectively handle its maintenance.

“If the first contract which was awarded to the tune of N1 billion last year was properly carried out with the right motives, a comprehensive underwater inspection should have preceded that job,” Ugochukwu said.

“There are strong indications that the Third Mainland Bridge is being turned into a white elephant project by some government officials to drain the nation’s treasury,” he said.

However, Mr. Kola Ekundayo, also a real estate analyst, gave some insights to the latest contract, saying the quality of surveillance activity carried out by the beneficiary company may be poor or inadequate as compliance to contract terms of the underwater job is difficult to ascertain or validated by independent inspectors.

“The N290.745 million may be grossly inadequate for a thorough job to be done and this suggests, therefore, that the monies were doled out to line up the pockets of corrupt government officials,” Ekundayo explained.

He added that, “What ordinarily should have been a noiseless routine maintenance on the Third Mainland Bridge as it is done in other parts of the organised world has turned into an object of political gymnastics in Nigeria.”

Ekundayo again expressed displeasure over the neglect of the infrastructure for 17 years prior to the first maintenance in 2007. He regretted that the Third Mainland Bridge was yet to be certified crisis-free despite reported and celebrated attempts to fix it.

The real estate analyst, who described the bridge as an accident waiting to happen, advised the Federal Ministry of Works to channel its energies towards the replacement and repair of the defective components of the bridge, instead of making noise and raising alarm continually.

He stressed that, “All bridges across the world do vibrate, but the case of the Third Mainland Bridge has been usual. What is on ground has shown that there should be a holistic overhaul of all the defective installations on the bridge.

“Apart from the need to carry out emergency checks on the Third Mainland Bridge to ascertain its stability, the Federal Government, through the Works Ministry, must put in place a routine maintenance programme for all its infrastructure and bridges, especially the Third Mainland Bridge. This is in order to make those public facilities serve the citizens long as expected.”

He blamed the nation’s political leadership for making a lot of noise when it comes to allocation of monies or contract award.

One of the engineers who carried repair works on it in 1990, Mr. Adewale Lamina, had said, the fears over the bridge are not without basis.  “What is paramount on the part of the managers of the bridge to do is to identify the exact cause of the vibration. If the bearings of the bridge are weak, it could create a major problem. And this could be checked by reducing the load through traffic diversion pending when the fault would be corrected. The waves and underground land movement constantly move any bridge constructed on water and the components must be flexible to make it expand and contrast, hence the vibrations,” said Lamina, who had retired from the service of the Lagos State Government, and had debunked the initial fears in 2007 that the Third Mainland Bridge had collapsed.

While fielding questions from members of the Senate Committee on Works at the opening of an investigative public hearing on the state of the bridge last February, the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, dismissed reports by experts that the bridge would collapse, putting the cost of fresh repairs of the bridge at N5 billion.

The minister explained said that the ministry engaged the services of Nigerian Submarine Divers (NSD) Limited in 2010 to examine both the Third Mainland Bridge and Eko Bridge in Lagos with a view to establishing the state of their underwater structural elements.

He also disclosed that the initial report of underwater inspection which was presented by NSD in July 2011 showed frightening deterioration and serious damage on numerous piles of the Third Mainland Bridge.

He explained that the final report submitted by NSD in November 2011 indicated widespread corrosion of embedded steel reinforcement in piles, concrete degradation and loss of concrete material as well as discontinuities in some foundation piles which had apparently affected the load bearing capacity of the piles.

However, the minister added that report showed that all the piles were not inspected for various reasons, including obstruction caused by human activities as well as inaccessibility.

He said the ministry insisted that all piles under the water and the land must be investigated in line with the contract, but the findings of NSD were strictly based on visual inspection and under water photos.

Consequently, at meetings with officials of the ministry, Messrs NSD, Julius Berger and Borini Prono, it was decided that advanced integrity assessment, including high technology, chemical analysis of concrete samples from piles was inevitable, in order to authenticate the findings of NSD as contained in their reports.

Source: Daily Newswatch