By Lydia Chigozie-Ngwakwe
The Federal Government is planning to connect the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway to the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway.
The Minister of Works, Sen. Dave Umahi, made the disclosure on Wednesday after a comprehensive inspection of the under deck of the Carter Bridge in Lagos State.
“We are looking at how to go through the Ahmadu Bello Way – the coastal route – and connect it to Snake Island.
“We have a lot of land within Snake Island and, of course, the NNPC landing depot is there; then we connect it down to Badagry which means that we are connecting the coastal route to the Sokoto Badagry Superhighway through that tunnel.
“Our tunnel inside the ground is going to be 2.9km, and we are connecting it through the Ahmadu Bello Way,” he said.
The minister gave the assurance that the connection would be seamless.
“You will not see the tunnel until they appear on Ahmadu Bello Way. That is where you see people coming out of the tunnel.
“When done, it is going to be the first tunnel in Africa inside water, and we are looking at Public/Private Partnership (PPP).
“We have land at Snake Island, we have land at Badagry; so, we hope to use this land under PPP to fund the project under build, operate and transfer scheme.”
Umahi noted that works on the Third Mainland Bridge and Carter Bridge had been advertised for PPP.
He appealed to motorists to stop parking on bridges.
“Parking on bridges is very dangerous, and this is the reason we have frequent damages to our bridge infrastructure.”
Umahi expressed dissatisfaction that a large number of vehicles, including heavily-loaded trucks, were parking on the newly-constructed road from Eleme to Onne in Port Harcourt.
“It is the responsibility of all of us to protect our national assets,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Ijeoma Popoola
