Umahi: 750km Lagos-Calabar Highway to be Reviewed to Allow for CCTVs, Others
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The Minister of Works, David Umahi at the weekend disclosed that work on the 750-kilometre Lagos-Calabar coastal highway was progressing well, pointing out that the mega project will be reviewed to accommodate new features.
Speaking when he inspected sections I and II of the project around Lagos, being handled by Hitech Construction Company, Umahi stated that the review will allow for Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) powered by solar energy throughout the stretch of the highway and aesthetics such as trees as well as lay-bys.
The minister, in a statement in Abuja by his spokesman, Uchenna Orji,further disclosed that while the road will have security, there will be no roadblocks.
“We’re going to plant trees. And of course, we are going to also have some lay-bys. We can decide every five kilometres to have a lay-by where we connect all our CCTV cameras. And then we have vehicles and the security within the cabin there, so that the response time will be like 10 minutes.
“I’m sure that you’ve witnessed what we did at the Third Mainland Bridge. That’s what we intend to replicate in all our highways. And so the entire stretch of 750 kilometers to Calabar will be under CCTV, powered by solar.
“We may agree we will have portal cabins where we have security posts, no blocking of the roads. We will have a viewing centre, and then you view the entire stretch left and right,” he said.
Stressing that it was never envisaged for the service lane to have CCTV cameras, the minister lauded President Bola Tinubu for initiating the ‘legacy projects’ that would connect the critical economic corridors and boost the transportation system in the six geopolitical zones.
He noted that the projects initiated by Tinubu and the ones he inherited were still on course, explaining that ‘milestone’ project execution strategy was adopted to ensure a sense of equality among all regions.
Umahi declared that some of the sections of the projects being executed nationwide, including the inherited ongoing projects, would be ready for commissioning by May, 2025.
“Work is progressing on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. We have the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway. Work is seriously in progress on the project. The first 120 kilometres work is going on in Sokoto. It has been procured. And work is going on by Hitech, using concrete.
“And then, you have the Kebbi section of 250 kilometres. Work is also going on there. And so, we strongly believe that we’ll be able to have about 20 km in both sections to commission by May 29. In section one of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway in South-west, we are very sure that we’ll commission the first 20 kilometres in section one and 10 kilometres in section two,” he added.
The minister said the government was funding the projects despite his interventions in other critical priority sectors of the economy.
“The president has given very serious attention to road infrastructure. Don’t forget that this coastal highway and the four legacy projects all have the train track incorporated. The construction of the train track for this section I is going to take off in 2025.
“So this is what we are doing. And we strongly believe that the president is going to give the nation of Nigeria the road infrastructure that they have been yearning for,” he assured.
Earlier in her welcome remarks, the Federal Controller of Works, Olukorede Kesha, recounted that there were initial challenges encountered during the takeoff of the project.
“When you’re doing a preliminary design, you cannot do a borehole at every metre…So, in the process of executing the project, we encountered a lot of refuse dumps. It was like this place was like Olushosun, where they dump dirt to the magnitude of about five meters depth in some places.
“Now the contractor has carted away all that and then replaced it with good soil. That’s sand-filling from the ocean, so we had to wait a little,” she added.
