Action plan for bridges: Fashola’s ambitious solution to infrastructure decay

To say that bridges across Nigeria are bad is an understatement, because many of them are in such terrible conditions that make their use an enormous risk for motorists and commuters. Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, has a fair share of these.

There is palpable fear in motorists that these bridges could collapse anytime, but the Federal Government has allayed these fears through a new action plan by Babatunde Fashola, the minister for Power, Works  and Housing which aims to solve this infrastructure problem within available resources.

Under a ‘Nationwide Bridge Improvement Programme’, the minister has commissioned a Bridge Department in the ministry to carry out bridge inspections to determine the present condition of all bridges nationwide and the inspection showed that federal bridges nationwide are in unsatisfactory condition.

“The reason for this condition is destruction by insurgents, willful damage by illegal under-bridge squatters, vandalization of  bridge members and lack of routine and periodic maintenance, etc”, the minister hinted in his speech during one year of his coming to office in Lagos recently.

The Nationwide Bridge Improvement Programme, he explained, was to address problems on Bridges on the Federal road network, pointing out however that, given the enormity of the challenges vis-a-vis the available funding, the problems are to be addressed in the immediate, short and long term.

“Prioritization of intervention has been made using criteria such as probability of failure, cost of lives and property, loss of utility, failure mode and cost of reinstatement in the event of collapse”, he said.

Immediate solution to the problem will be to facilitate quick completion of emergency bridge repairs; take-off of important bridge projects, and  in-house design of new bridges using available budgetary provisions while in the short term government will introduce preventive maintenance;  routine/periodic maintenance of bridges in fair condition, and prevent further deterioration of bridges.

The long-term solution, according to the minister, will involve preventive maintenance of (major) important flyovers/bridges, and construction of major (River) bridges.

Fashola also highlighted some milestones in the road sector, disclosing that  in 2016 appropriation, N251 billion was allocated for highway projects and that the ministry has so far received two releases for highway projects in June and October 2016.

In June 2016, the ministry received its first release of N79 billion under the 2016 Appropriation Act out of which N70.4billion was utilised for highway projects. Payments were made to contractors to return to site after years of inactivity which resulted in recalling their workers and improving the socio-economic indices in the sector nationwide.

“As at November11,  2016, the Ministry has disbursed the sum of N124,811,778,324.53 from the 2016 Appropriation Act for highway projects. Under the first release, N70,420,346,668.68 was disbursed on 203  highway projects. The disbursement in June 2016 enabled contractors to return to site and a total of 8,759 jobs were created nationwide”, the minister said, hoping that with the payment , employment will be generated in the sector just as it will improve the cash flow in the economy nationwide.

Continuing, he said, “it is pertinent to highlight that contractors who had demobilized from site have now remobilized; several workers who were disengaged have been called back”, he hinted, assuring that with the rainy season over, full construction/rehabilitation work will resume on various sites nationwide.