johnie:

The parts of the road that were broken recently were manned by the LASTMA guys this morning. I have noticed that they  monitor such spots -not just at Lekki but I have seen them in other places in Lagos. I have seen them filling such spots with earth!

I think this shows that they are not all about extortion! Kudos to you guys!

It's good to know that someone somewhere is actually concerned about us.

It means that they're getting the right kind of direction from their ogas

Traffic was not so bad last night and this morning. I will highlight the spots where there was traffic this morning with some pictures.

I noticed that some of the broken parts of the road had been patched up.

There was traffic jam for those coming from beyond Chevron caused by some cars that collided at Agungi entrance. Unfortunately, I could not get the pictures there.

After that spot, it was smooth sailing except at SPAR junction, Ikate/Second round about and just after the toll plaza


Pic 1: Middle support for foot bridge at Jakande. Pedestrians crossing here are a source of traffic. Second major source is the bus stop (if we can call it that since the buses practically stop on the right lane thereby impeding free flow of traffic)

Pic 2-4: The SPAR junction (beside NICON Estate). Work is being carried out on the underground waste water channel hence the creation of a diversion.

Pic 1: Still Waters Estate. Observe the white Nissan Xterra making a u-turn. Such u-turn spots are usually the source of traffic hold-ups. Most of the spots where such turns were don before have now been blocked by the newly constructed medians. A round about is being created at this particular spot now though it might take some time for them to complete.

Pic 2-4: Approaching the second round about at Ikate Elegushi/Phase 1 second gate. I am still trying to figure out why the traffic jam has persisted here even after the drive-through (see below) was created. This place used to be very free until recently. One probable cause is the pedestrians crossing here (see below). A footbridge might be required here.

Pic 1: Second round about/Ikate Junction. Observe the LASMA offficial controlling traffic to enable pedestrians cross. This probably one of the sources of traffic at this junction.

pic 2: The newly created drive-through at the second roundabout. Until this last weekend, motorists had to drive round the round-about . A drive through the round about has now been created to enable motorists going across the round about to just drive through. There was also few bad spots at the round about until the weekend when they were patched up.

I suppose this is a foot bridge being constructed at the first round about. Observe the yellow/blue heavy equipment on the left side of the picture. The median has been fenced off to prevent pedestrians darting across the road. Pedestrians have to go to the spot where the LASTMA officials are at the round about to cross the road.

Approaching the toll plaza after the first round about. The traffic here is not bad despite the number of cars you see.

There are eleven booths through which cars can drive through. At this particular time only six (with green arrows atop them) are open for motorists. The ones with red crosses were available but not open for use at the time.

It took me about 30 minutes to get to this point from Chevron round about!

Driving through the booth.

Pic 3:  Vehicles are controlled by the traffic light which is just before a barrier. What I have observed is that the operators of the booth look at the type of vehicle in the booth, press something on their console and the barrier opens and the light to green. Then you can proceed. Usually this takes less than a minute.

Presently we don't pay to drive through. There are speculations are so what the toll would be. Some of the booths are to be configured to allow you to drive through if you have a sticker/pass which a machine (just below the operator's arm in the picture) reads and deducts your account. You would be required to pay at some of the booths if you don't have the sticker or pass.

Those Okada (motorcycle) riders are not supposed to be going through there!

Sorry about the picture quality.

Emerging from the toll plaza.

See why I said the traffic approaching the plaza is mild?

The cause of this traffic is usually the traffic light at the Oniru Estate junction which should serve as a bypass for those who don't want to go through the toll plaza, those going to or coming from VI (i.e Ligali Ayorinde, Ajose Adeogun, Muri Okunola) or those coming from/going into Oniru Estate (e.g. Palms Shopping Mall).

Traffic runs in front of Oriental Hotel to the traffic light and one could be here between five and ten minutes.

On this particular occasion, the traffic was exacerbated by something else. Observe the blue crane just to the top right of the Toyota truck!

Thank God i moved from that axis.

^^^

Where in Lekki were you staying then?

johnie:

^^^

Where in Lekki were you staying then?

This na serious jamb question which i refuse to answer.

^^^



Why do you REFUSE?

As I was saying, the traffic at Oriental Hotel was the result of work being carried out on the footbridge at the junction.

The horizontal beam was being laid.

Observe that Epe-bound traffic have been diverted to two lanes on the the V/I bound side of the road thereby narrowing the lanes for traffic from four to two.

Pic 2: This traffic light is usually the cause of traffic after the plaza.

LASTMA and LCC officials were on hand to direct traffic this morning (when I passed there) as you can see from the photograph.

Took the same trip this morning but decided to take the existing "coastal road" which serves as an alternative to the second toll plaza.

The road is just beside the waterfront and had been tarred some decades back but has fallen into disrepair and neglect. The use of the road by heavy trucks of construction companies particularly (JB) has made matters even worse.

To pass this road now, you must have a strong heart and very good car. I would advice you to go only go as far as Alpha Beach unless you have a 4x4 (preferably with an auxiliary gear!) If you have such a vehicle and go further down you could get to v/I within 15 minutes!

I joined the expressway through the Alpha Beach/New Road and got to the Chevron round about at 6.30 a.m and got to the Falomo bridge at 7.20 a.m.

The Alpha Beach Road which runs beside the construction site of the American International School being constructed by JB was recently graded by JB. They have done a good job keeping the road in passable form thougn it gets quite dusty when there has been no rain for days.

See https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-367311.224.html#msg6336102

Coastal road.

The red lights are those of vehicles going ahead of me.

pic 3: The bright white light is that of a JB truck heading towards me

pic 4: The red light is that of the truck heading to my right while the bright white light is that of a car which I was overtaking.
At the background (not clear) are the Chevron Twin Lakes Estate site (being sandfilled by JB) and the back of the Lekki Conservation Centre (where the trees are).

Sorry about the picture quality (these pictures were taken at dawn)

Pic 1: At Alpha beach. While I turn off from the coastal road into Alpha Beach New Road enoute the expressway, the SUV on my left is continuing along the waterfront. He should reach V/I within 15 minutes.

pic 2-3: Construction work at the American Intenational School site.

Pic 4: Work on the fence of the International School near the expresway

pic 1: International School fence Fence

pic 2: joining the expressway

pic 3-4: Hi-Tech Heavy equipment that worked there last night.


*** I can now confirm that constrcution work goes on at night. I saw truck tipping these heaps of sand at thi location last night around 8 p.m. and also saw some constrcion work going on betwen Amazon and Second round about last night. ***

Heading towards Chevron round about

Vehicles with headlights on were heading towards V/I

Pic 1: Going round the round about. The gate on the right is that of JB's contruction site which leads back to the Twin Lakes Estate adjoining the coastal road.

Going further instead of turning would lead you to the second toll plaza. I expect that the alternative route would be the Alpha Beach New Road through the coastal road to burst out opposite Oluwanishola (Eleganza) Estate via Orchids Events Centre.

Pic 2: Chevron office

pic 3: My dashboard clock. I was here at Chevron round about at 6.28 a.m.

Pic 4: Hi-Tech workers on the between the Alpha Beach New Road and Chevron roundabout (probably planning for the day's job)

Heavy equipment at Alpha beach road junction. This was not there when I passed there around 8 p.m. last night. I guess they worked overnight.

Will our people ever learn?

This picture was taken at Alpha Beach junction.

This tanker tipped over either late last night or very early this morning as it was not there when I passed there at 8 p.m.

There was a crowd (particularly okada riders) at the spot scooping what I believe must have been kerosene.  My co-passenger claimed to have seen money changing hands there.

Thank God it was not laden with petrol!

It also underscores the need for the construction work on the road to be quick and the road properly lit at night as the truck must have tipped when the driver could not see very well.

This also must have contributed to the traffic for those heading to V/I as you can trust that drivers would pause to watch before driving off.

Well, I'm back.
Unfortunately I am not dexterous enough, to take pictures as I drive. Will try to learn.
I was pleased to find no traffic at all yesterday evening, as I drove to Spar at about 7.30pm.
This morning, I had to take a concall from home, and left later than usual, at about 8.15am. Was also pleased to not find any traffic leading to 2nd roundabout (Ikate).
Though, after the toll plaza, traffic on Ozumba was rather heavy. I noticed they've placed one of the overhead slabs for the foot bridge. My Mrs tells me they blocked that lane at 7am yesterday, while they were putting the slabs up. Should that not have been done at night?

pic 1 - 2: Between Alpha Beach junction and Igbo Efon junction

pic 3: Agungi v/i bound side of the road now being done. I think they started work here yesterday.

pic 4: 3rd roundabout. Observe the brown Honda CRV turning right. It drove against traffic along the way to get to this point and would obstruct those driving normally. You can see that he is blocking the car attemting to turn left which in turn is blocking the other cars behind it.

Our problems are caused by such indiscipline!

AjanleKoko:

Well, I'm back.
Unfortunately I am not dexterous enough, to take pictures as I drive. Will try to learn.
I was pleased to find no traffic at all yesterday evening, as I drove to Spar at about 7.30pm.
This morning, I had to take a concall from home, and left later than usual, at about 8.15am. Was also pleased to not find any traffic leading to 2nd roundabout (Ikate).
Though, after the toll plaza, traffic on Ozumba was rather heavy. I noticed they've placed one of the overhead slabs for the foot bridge. My Mrs tells me they blocked that lane at 7am yesterday, while they were putting the slabs up. Should that not have been done at night?

You are welcome back.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that there was no traffic going home last night until I got to Jakande!

The traffic experienced at Ikate yesterday morning was not there this morning (as I would show shortly).

I agree with you that work on the pedestrian bridge could have been done at night but then I am not a civil engineer so maybe they had their reasons.

Pic 1: 6.56 a.m finds me at third round about. It has taken me 26 minutes to reach here from Chevron. This stretch is usually the slowest part of my journey and sometimes takes up to an hour ( I hope that is in the past now).

Between here and Falomo used to take about 45 minutes. Let's see how long it takes today.

Pic 2-3: At 3rd round about

pic 4: traffic eases off a little after the round about.

You see all sorts in the traffic.

I hope this guy is getting paid for the advert!

Pic 1: At Jakande/First gate. Pedestrians crossing (such as the woman) cause some of the delays. A foot bridge is being constructed here - see yesterday's pictures.

Pic 2-3 SPAR Junction. Work still going. Diversion causes some delay.

Ikate/Second round about, very free at 7.09 a.m.

Free after the second round about all the way through Amazon Junction and first round about!

Work was being carried at the location in pic 3 last night.

Approaching the toll plaza.

Compare with yesterday.