Travellers went through a harrowing experience on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Friday and Saturday as they were held up for hours in traffic gridlock.
Julius Berger, the contractor working on the Lagos end of the Expressway has narrowed road in many locations.
The Ojodu Berger/Secretariat part of the experience is always heavy and slow following the narrowing of the road by JB. About the same time the end of the Longbridge was equally narrowed down. Effectively, motorist coming from Ibadan sometimes experience the traffic snarl from Arepo and will not be free from it till they go beyond Secretariat.
Many times, impatient motorists, trying to avoid the traffic, go on one way and add to the misery of motorists heading to Ibadan.
On the Ibadan end of the expressway, there are at least two major traffic snarls. Motorists encounter one shortly after the Sagamu Interchange and the second one by Guru Maharajji camp, all the way to the Toll Gate, where the road contractor has narrowed the road for repair work.
On Friday, motorists spent long hours in the Sagamu and Ibadan tollgate traffic hiccups, both to and from Ibadan, as those plying one-way complicated the crisis.
The Lagos State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Olusegun Ogungbemide, told the Punch:
“The traffic volume increased because of the Sallah celebration. What we have today (Saturday) is exceptional due to the downpour. That is what we have been managing in the past few days and you know we have a three-kilometre construction site at the Otedola Bridge. There is no obstruction on the road; it’s just the traffic volume.”
Speaking on the state of the road construction, Ogungbemide said, “It is in three stages. We have the milling, compacting and asphalt laying. But the milling and compacting are going on simultaneously. One is taking off from kilometre 0, while the other is taking off from kilometre three. And after that part, they will move to the other side. So, that is what we are going to live with in some months’ time.”
