The federal government says about N3.8 trillion will be required to rehabilitate the Third Mainland Bridge following the discovery of severe underwater structural issues.
David Umahi, the minister of works, spoke on Wednesday after the federal executive council (FEC) meeting in Abuja.
The meeting was presided over by President Bola Tinubu.
The minister detailed findings from underwater assessments conducted in 2013 and 2019 on the Carter and Third Mainland bridges in Lagos.
According to Umahi, the assessment revealed severe damage to the bridges’ substructure caused by illegal sand mining, erosion, and corrosion of piles and piers.
“[For the Third Mainland Bridge], when we did a pro rata of what is to be done, if we are to rehabilitate, it came to about N3.8 trillion and if we are to do a new construction, it came to about N3.6 trillion,” Umahi said.
The minister said the proposal followed a series of emergency interventions carried out on bridges across the country.
“So we approached, FEC to give us approval to do two things under the EPC+F (Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Financing) framework, to allow not less than seven specialist contractors to undertake comprehensive investigation, comprehensive design, and the bidding to reconstruct brand new bridges, or to do rehabilitation of these two bridges,” he said.
Umahi said the council also greenlit the advertisement for public-private partnerships (PPP), allowing the private sector to bid for rehabilitation.
The politician said the approvals extend to other bridge interventions, covering the Jalingo bridge in Taraba, the Ido Bridge in Oyo, which was burnt and requires the removal of three spans.
Others include the Keffi Flyover in Nasarawa, Mokwa bridge in Niger, and a damaged bridge on the Abuja-Kogi road.
In addition, the former Ebonyi governor said bridges between Lagos and Ibadan, Jebba bridge in Kwara state, and the Itokin-Ikorodu bridge in Lagos would also be checked.
“These emergency works will be articulated and forwarded to Mr. President for approval through the minister of finance,” Umahi said.
Earlier, the minister had said the council approved a total of N493 billion for two major infrastructure projects.
Umahi said the two projects are the upgrade of the 152-kilometre Kano-Katsina road and the construction of a new Carter Bridge in Lagos state.
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For context, the longest bridge in the world is the Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge in China, with a length of 164.8km and costs $8.5billion(N13.175trillion) to build from scratch. It is 14 times longer than 3rd Mainland Bridge.
3rd Mainland Bridge is merely 11.8km and FG want to use N3.6trillion to repair.
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