BY SEBASTINE OBASI

Work on the long-awaited second Niger bridge has commenced. Wolfgang Goetsch, Managing Director of Julius Berger stated this at the 43rd annual general meeting of the company in Abuja.

Goetsch also said the Federal Government had given Julius Berger a letter of intent, which would enable it to do preliminary work such as, soil testing and engineering design.

According to him, the bridge is to be built under the private public partnership arrangement.

Goetsch said: “A consortium that included a company from South Africa participated in the bidding for the project. In January 2013, our group became the preferred bidder. We are excited because it will be the first of its kind in Nigeria”.
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He also said mobilization to site for the construction of the 125-kilometre Lagos-Sagamu road will begin in 10 days.

Five lanes are expected to be added to the road. The Build, Operate and Transfer, BOT, arrangement the Federal Government had with Bi-Courtney Highways Services Limited, had been terminated.

At the annual general meeting, Julius Berger declared a profit before tax of N12.34 billion, for the 2012 financial year, as against N9.93 billion recorded in the previous year.

Profit after tax stood at N8.02 billion, as against N4.41 billion, while the company approved an increased dividend of N2.50, resulting in a total gross dividend payment of N3 billion.

This is a marked improvement over that of 2011 fiscal year, which was N2.40 per share. Retired Air Vice Marshal Nura Imam, chairman of the company, said the performance in 2012 increased by 17.7 percent from 2011.

“This commendable achievement is attributable to a number of factors, including the handover of large-scale projects such as the Admiralty Alexander link bridge in Lagos, the Escravos Gas-to-liquids plant, as well as the completion of a major segment of the Lagos-Badagry expressway and several projects in Akwa Ibom State,” he said.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/06/julius-berger-begins-work-on-2nd-niger-bridge/

As far as the masses are concerned. This is good new. But na Naija we dey therefore we'll only have to wait until december 2013 and then check back to see the level progress that has been made on these two projects. If good then more accolades will follow.

Lagos-sagamu should be taken as the most expedient road project in the country

The work has already begun from Oko junction, Asaba. That i can confirm to you.

Also, These are the bridges built over and across the Niger in Nigeria so far:

1.The Jebba bridge(Niger-Kwara)..built during the Colonial times, and the first bridge over the Niger.....in Nigeria. (There are two bridges there now...the old railway bridge-which used to be dual purpose-rail and road- and the modern road bridge)

2.The Koton-Karfe bridge(at Kogi State, built in 1976, also called the Muritala Bridge).

3.The Ajaokuta Bridge(built some distance from the Steel Complex).

4.The Niger Bridge(the Southeast one) at Onitsha.(Built in 1965, damaged during the Civil War, rebuilt in the 1970's)....infact readers of Chinua Achebe's children's book Chike and the River would be able to date the book as being published pre-1965, because it mentions that Chike used a ferry to travel from Onitsha to Asaba.(the river being the Niger River).

There may be a bridge at the Kainji dam (5). That will make Niger Bridge at Onitsha no 6.

Build the Niger bridge, dredge the lower River Niger and make it capable of berthing high volume ships, build electricity. Then see the SE transform itself into the most industrialized region in sub-saharan Africa without making any noise. Igbos dont care who becomes the President of Nigeria then. They'd be the least to cry to govt to create jobs. They'd make the world beg them for human and material assistance.
Chukwu gozie AlaIgbo ebem si bia ya na nd'Igbo nile.