Lagos-Badagry Expressway gridlock getting worst as project drags

By: MIKE OCHONMA

This is not the best time for users of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway project following the abysmally slow pace of work at the ongoing road project by the Chinese contractors handling the project.

Suprisingly, the stretch of distance where the horrible traffic snarl is just few meters apart and this is precisely at the very busy Lagos international trade fair complex referred to as the auto spare parts (ASPAMDA) and other articles market.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had during his campaign period assured that one of his top priorities would be to haten up the completion of the Lagos-Badagry road project.

Upon assumption of office, the state chief executive had made good his campaign promises by bringing a glimpse of hope by mobilising the Chinese Civil Engineering & Construction Company (CCECC) back to site.

Unfortunately, the experience of commuters including BusinessDay along the corridor has always presented a terrible picture of hopelessness, despair, frustration and sense of rejection.

The situation is made worse by the failure of adequate traffic measure by the concerned authorities because the good and motorable road infrastructure is is not even there.

In the past two months, the CCECC; the contractors handling the project is stucked in just one spot; and that is right in front of ASPAMDA, thus raising very critical questions among commuters as to whether the contractors  have not been adequately mobilised or lacking in equipments and adequate manpower.

The Lagos Badagry road expansion and modernisation project was started in 2009 under the former governor Babajide Raji Fashola, but abruptly stopped when Akinwunmi Ambode, his successor took over as the state chief executive in 2015.

Many Lagosians are still left in utter bewilderment as to why both the All Progressives Congress controlled state and federal governments cannot accord the Lagos-Badagry Expressway road project the priority it deserves.

Some schools of thought have on various occasions described the lack of political will to hasten the project which connects Nigeria with other West African neighbours as a total embarrassment to both the state and federal governments that are under the control of the same All Progressives Congress (APC).