₦airaland Forum

I have observed that though most of the stretch of completed road work is fenced, there are some unfenced portions along the road. These unfenced portions are mainly in front of some establishments and I am wondering why these are not fenced off like the others.

These examples are of two car showrooms whose frontage are 'yet' to be fenced.

Daily Independent (Lagos)

Nigeria: FG Warns Developers On Lagos-Ibadan Expressway
Rotimi Durojaiye
14 March 2010


The Federal Government has warned public utility owners to desist from further development on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, without adequate clearance from the Federal Ministry of Works, Housing and Urban Development.

Also, the concessionaire handling the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Bi-Courtney Highway Services Limited (BHSL), has promised to give Nigerians the best expressway in West Africa.

Speaking over the weekend at an interactive session with select journalists on the state of the concession, a Director in the Ministry of Works, Housing and Urban Development, Engineer Babatunde Ekunsunmi, said any development on the highway after the concession agreement with BHSL would be illegal.

The Federal Government concessioned the highway in May 2009 to BHSL and handed over same in September 2009. It is a Design, Build Operate and Transfer (DBOPT), project and has a completion period of 48 months.

Ekunsunmi said the agreement done through the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) is the corrective way of dealing with government infrastructure in the right manner.

He said public utility owners on the highway should ask questions from the ICRC on how to protect their facilities.

The director stated that this would ensure that the concession is done according to agreement.

According to him, since government does not have the facilities to take care of all infrastructure in the country, the concept of concessioning became imperative, adding that Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is a pilot project on how to give Nigerians the best expressway.

Ekunsunmi promised that on completion, the highway would meet international standards. He said it would be a limited access road, pointing out that nobody would go on the road for free.

He said toll gates and pedestrian crossings would be constructed at designated areas on the highway.

Also speaking at the interactive session, Chairman, Project Implementation Committee of BHSL, Olusegun Ahmadu, said at the end of the project, BHSL would give comfort to all road users on the highway.

According to him, since the handover of the highway to BHSL, repairs to cracked and failed surfaces of the road have continued. He said repairs have progressed to kilometer 35 Northbound and Kilometer 32 Southbound.

Ahmadu said the right way on both sides of the road is also being cleared, and that about 40 kilometers stretch have so far been cleared. He regretted that the road has become so bad that many sections of it have failed.

While decrying the traffic manners of most Nigerians, Ahmadu said: "Our traffic manners need to be improved upon." He said most trailers plying the highway go beyond their weight limit and that most of the trucks are not fit for the road.

He said BHSL has built temporary trailer parks with capacity for 2,000 trailers. Ahmadu gave a breakdown of the trailer park capacity as Ibafo Southbound, 300 trailers; Ibafo Northbound, 50 trailers; Ibafo Northbound (Gideon College), 150 trailers; Ibafo Northbound (Rainbow College), 150 trailers; Ogere Northbound 1, 100 trailers; Ogere Southbound, 350 trailers; and Ogere Northbound 2, 550 trailers.

He said on completion, the 100 kilometer highway would be made of four modern lanes from Lagos to Sagamu, while the Sagamu to Ibadan end would be made of three modern lanes.

Ahmadu assured that the highway would be made of tourist attractions with modern recreation areas.

He also promised adequate security to avoid criminality on the road. He described the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway as the most highly trafficked road in Nigeria.

He said the high traffic volume derives from the position and location of Lagos as a major air and sea ports, former capital city and the economic nerve centre of Nigeria.




Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/201003150948.html

[quote author=phuck_NL link=topic=367311.msg6133201#msg6133201 date=1275422279]Abeg no let the naija factor enter oo.[/quote]Thanks P. I'll keep doing my best.

I don't understand what you mean by Naija factor though.

Construction of the ramp that would take traffic from Ozumba Mbadiwe (near Law School) up the Falomo Bridge. Newly re-constructed, but still unoccupied 1004 Estate can be seen in the background

pic 1: From Ozumba Mbadiwe
Pic 2: &3 : From the Bridge

With the ramp, vehicles would'nt have to turn into Adeyemo Alakija before joining Akin Adesola to get on the Bridge. This should ease traffic for those passing the junction tremendously.

Pic 1: Construction materials
Pic 2: Graffiti on the road protesting tolling and fencing, very close  the site of the second plaza at Chevron

Approaching the second toll plaza currently under construction beside Chevron. These pictures were taken approaching V/I from Ajah.

17-hour gridlock cripples Lagos-Ibadan Expressway .

Source:http://www.compassnewspaper.com/NG/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49078:17-hour-gridlock-cripples-lagos-ibadan-expressway&catid=672:top-stories&Itemid=794

Monday, 24 May 2010 09:57 Bunmi Ogunmodede  .

IT was easier for the horse to pass through the needle’s eye than for travellers along the Ibafo axis of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to make it through to their destinations at the weekend.

Many of them spent the whole night in a traffic that made riding on the expressway nightmarish for commuters. No thanks to the traffic bottleneck that lastest for 17 hours to clear at Ibafo, an Ogun State community along the dual carriage way.



For the more than 17 hours that the traffic madness lasted, those trapped made telephone calls to their homes to intimate them of their helpless situation. It took travellers about six hours to make a two-kilometre trip within the affected four-kilometre radius. The gridlock, which started at exactly 5.15 pm on Saturday, was triggered by a collision involving a tipper lorry and a tanker laden with fuel. Overwhelmed by the traffic created by the accident, which spread across a four-kilometre radius of Ibafo on the expressway, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Unit Command in Mowe, had to call for reinforcement from Lagos Command and Sagamu unit of the FRSC.

They were joined by the officials of the Ogun State Traffic Compliant and Enforcement (TRACE) agency, fire fighters and policemen from the Ibafo Divisional Area Command, led by the Divisional Police Commander (DPO) and the Divisional Traffic Officer (DTO). The combined traffic control team was able to restore traffic sanity by 10.15 am yesterday after they stationed their men at the Mountain of Fire Under-pass and the U-turn at Asese, the two points where drivers of Ibadan and Lagos-bound vehicles changed their lanes to drive against the traffic, thus compounding the situation. It was learnt that the FRSC was initially helpless as could neither remove the fuel-laden tanker, nor tow away the lorry for fear of a spark. The fire fighter were immediately called to fumigate the immediate environment to avoid possible fire outbreak.

All the traffic controllers could do was to instill discipline while the content in the tanker marked Kebbi XA 70 JEB was trans-loaded to another truck marked Sokoto XA 313 BAD. Mr. Morakinyo Olalekan, the Assistant Corps Commander and Unit Commander of the FRSC in Mowe told the Nigerian Compass that it was war enforce traffic discipline among the drivers, who he said were “grossly impatient.” According to him, the crisis was created by drivers, who, desperate to get to their destinations, overwhelmed the FRSC officials on duty, to drive against traffic. His words: “That impatience got us to where we are now since 5.15 pm. Our men were controlling traffic immediately the accident occurred.

But by 12 midnight after trans-loading the fuel, the two vehicles involved were cleared out of the carriage way. “Driving against traffic compounded the situation. But for our men who turned back those driving against the traffic to follow the normal lane, we would not have achieved this level of sanity. “But principally, standstill is usually the end-product of inpatience. If only the people could be patient, every traffic situation could be brought under control without commuters having to spend the whole night on the road.” A road user, who physically assaulted the DPO was arrested, beaten but released, while a uniformed security officials, who was escorting a vehicle, who also assaulted the TRACE team leader, was prompted detained with his consignment. Olalekan noted that uniformed men, who often escort goods illegally were contributing to traffic logjams on the expressway, as they often encourage drivers to flout rules and regulations.

LCC & Hi-Tech must do something about the stretch between the second roundabout and the third roundabout.

In the evenings, the traffic jam stretches from third round about all the through the second round about sometimes to the Amazon Oil junction.

In the morning, the go-slow stretches from Ilasan (Jakande first gate/third round about) all the way to the fourth roundabout (Chevron).

The major cause of these bottleneck is the location of the bus stops at these points (between Ilasan and third roundabout).

I observed on Tuesday that a clearing has been done just the Ilasan Bus stop (when heading towards Epe) which I hope is intended to temporarily move the bus stop away from the main road and ease traffic there. A similar thing must be done immediately for the bus stop on the other side of the road (at Ilasan) and at the third round about.

If these areas are attended to, there would be an immediate improvement in traffic flow.

Hi tech/LCC, please take action immediatey!

New Lagos-Ibadan expressway design awaiting FG’s approval, says Babalakin

Wale Babalakin, chairman, Bi-Courtney Consortium, the concessionaire handling Lagos-Ibadan expressway, has said that the new design for the road has been submitted to the Federal Government awaiting approval.
The expressway is under 25-year concession. The interim design, according to Babalakin, is tailored to ensure the maximum comfort of Nigerians, saying once the approval is given the construction for which financiers are already lining up will start in full swing.

The Bi-Courtney chief, who said so far they have managed to clear the bottlenecks at Ogere, a community in Ogun State also made known that in the design, “Bi-Courtney is partnering a major company in South Africa that had before done about four major toll roads.”

Sanusi Daggash, minister of works, who two weeks ago inspected the road, said “the ultimate is to ensure that the project takes off and becomes a reality within the shortest possible time.” According to him, the project is expected to be a showcase for Nigeria as a country, to encourage further investments by the private sector as “we strive to provide world class international standard carriageways for Nigerians.”

“I believe the standard of the road that will eventually be built will probably be the first of its kind in Nigeria. We do have standards. But the standards of the PPP project will go beyond our normal standard designs for highways in the country. This is a massive investment. And being a massive investment means that the concessionaire is going to take a lot of risks because based on the PPP feasibility, government more or less expects not to take any risk with regards to guaranteeing either traffic movement or any measure of control,” Daggash stressed.

He said the idea of the project, apart from quality of service delivery, was to guaranty security. “So, we want Nigerians to appreciate that this project is in the overall interest of Nigerians and not necessarily the pockets of Bi-Courtney Consortium,” he also said.

Source: http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11425:new-lagos-ibadan-expressway-design-awaiting-fgs-approval-says-babalakin-&catid=85:national&Itemid=340

strangleyo:
These densely populated areas are nothing but human fungi, the sort you see growing on a tree stump, or on a moldy sandwich.

Oga Lawyer, please transfer this thread to the politics section.

Many thanks!

Wow GAR3TH!

Fancy meeting you here!

You guys (Håkønljzberg , friendsofthecity, etc) are doing a great job on skyscrapercity.

I have been a regular 'viewer' of skyscrapercity for some years now. And I must say I have learnt quite a lot for you guys. Keep up the good work.

Actually, today makes it exactly one month after I officially joined skyscrapercity. Fancy that!

Now that you have officially invited me, I would try and meet up with the high standards you guys have there with my own posts and pictures.

If you check the start of this thread, you would observe that I have actually quoted some stuff from skyscrapercity:

johnie:
The third round about through to the lekki (Maiyegun) beach is supposed to be transformed through the developement of a New Maiyegun Scheme (La Plage Business Distric and Estate) - (See http://laplagebusinessdistrict.com/ , [url=http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=653674[/b]]http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=653674[/url] and http://www.nairalist.com/lagos/housing/2993)

I heard on Channels TV News last night that the women came to the NAPTIP office in a bus with a national assembly number plate! The report indicated that the group was led by one 'christian' woman named Rita Audu.

Who are they fooling? They are a big disgrace to womanhood.

The news report also indicated that the NAPTIP secretary who received them expressed disappointment at the women and told them in no unclear terms that they should have directed their protest to the national assembly where the law was made. He said that as long as the law continues to exist, NAPTIP would see to its enforcement.

I was very impressed with the chap! We need more of such people who would not be cowed by those who consider themselves above the law!

Any updates, please.

Any updates?

Observe the delay these vehichles (those going in the same direction as the tanker) are experiencing as a result of having to wait for vehicles going into phase 1.

almondjoy:
NO PLACE IN NIGERIA QUALIFIES TO BE CALLED A CITY. . . . . .even by the lowest standards world wide!

After the round about

Does any one have an update on this?

Enquiries I made in April indicated that the process was yet to begin.

I actually visited one of the listed agencies on the day the exercise was to begin and the staff there had no clue what I was talking about.

Does any one have an update on this?

Enquiries I made in April indicated that the process was yet to begin.

I actually visited one of the listed agencies on the day the exercise was to begin and the staff there had no clue what I was talking about.

The roundabout

Hi Phuck (this your name na wa o!),

I am happy you find the pictures useful. I am hoping other people will add their own pictures too.

The traffic at phase 1 round about has somewhat eased but is not totally eliminated.

You are quire right, a flyover would have been more effective in managing the traffic there.

As it is now, those turning into phase 1 at the round about still impede the movement of those heading towards V/I. LASTMA officials still manually control traffic there.

I think traffic lights are likely to be installed to manage the trafiic there. Off-side zones may also be created within the roundabout.

I hate those off-side zones because they have become traps that LASTMA officials and police men use to extort money from innocent drivers. A good example of this can be found at Allen/Obafemi Awolowo Way Junction at Ikeja. The probability that you would not be caught in the off-side zone is 50%.

I think that as a standard, all traffic lights MUST have time counters so that drivers can properly anticipate when the light would change from green to amber to red and vice versa.

The traffic at the Phase 1 roundabout at night is heavy because a lot of the people who should go straight on towards second roundabout now prefer to turn into phase 1 and come out at the second roundabout. This is in a bid to avoid the 'go slow' between Amazon Oil Junction (which is being converted to a roundabout) and second round about.

If these people do not turn into phase 1 here, the traffic at the round about will definitely be lighter.

After the toll plaza. Heading towards the first roundabout.

Approaching the toll plaza.

Pix 1: 300 metres to the plaza. The blue boards lying against the wall are directional signs indicating which lanes users should ply. Toll fees are yet to be indicated.

Nigeria: Police, Army Clash Averted over Illegal Road Blocks at Seme/Badagry Road

Albert Akpor
7 May 2010

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT would have resulted in a bloody clash between some policemen attached to the Lagos state police command and some army personnel was Tuesday night averted following alleged mounting of illegal check points along the Seme\Badagry road by some uniformed personnel in Badagry and OPS MESAH.

Impeccable sources disclosed that some police men attached to a new squad tagged, Anti-illegal Road Block (AIRB) along the route and some soldiers had a heated argument over police insistence that various illegal road blocks mounted by these army personnel should be dislodged in accordance with the recent federal government's order that the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Ogbonna Onovo, should ensure that traffic flows freely along the route.

This order, it was learnt, followed complaints by some chiefs of police from the neighbouring countries who visited Nigeria last year over several checkpoints that dotted the highway to the border. According to sources, the altercation between the police and the soldiers would have resulted in a bloody clash that night but for the quick intervention of the Commander of the squad, Mr. Emmanuel Ighodalo, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).

The army personnel, reports say, have continued to mount illegal road blocks along the route brazenly, collecting tolls from both private and commercial motorists. Some of them were said to be escorting contraband like textile, rice, assorted canned foods and frozen chickens both day and night across the legal checkpoints.

Attempts to speak with the Commander of the Anti-Illegal Road Block (AIRB) failed but a source close to his office said that some of the army personnel have taken solace in mounting illegal road blocks since all other check points except those approved by the Nigerian Customs have been dislodged by the AIRB squad.

The source further disclosed that since the birth of the Police task froce, there have been free- flow of traffic along the route until the uniformed personnel surfaced with their road blocks. According to sources, "these soldiers operate six of these checkpoints at Aradagun junction, Church gate junction, Chef garden junction after Gbagi, MTN point, Mawo and Oke-Afo junctions respectively.

The operation of these illegal checkpoint starts from 6.00 am to 6.00 am the following day with the army men either collecting money brazenly from motorists or escorting contraband goods. Yesterday (last Tuesday), some policemen almost clashed with them at the points of these illegal road blocks because the police challenged them. But for the illegal activities of these soldiers, travellers from Nigeria-Seme coming to Lagos would not spend much time getting to their destinations. These uniformed personnel behave as if nobody can control them.".

Some motorists who spoke with Crime Guard painted very ugly and dehumanising pictures of their plight in the hands of the soldiers along the road. According to one of them who identified himself simply as Fatai, an auto dealer, "It is better for the Police, Custom and other quasi- organisations to take over the road like we had than what we are presently going through in the hands of these armed soldiers.

Do you know that they do not stop at creating unnecessary traffic bottle-necks only, they extort money from us and in addition, flog us as if we are slaves. No motorist passes there now without receiving a cane from them and we have christened it our "Seme Blessing from soldiers". That is our sing-song now.

We are sure that they come from either the army barracks nearby or they are members of the anti-crime outfit, Operation Mesa. We are therefore calling on both the Inspector-General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo and President Goodluck Jonathan to act immediately by calling these soldiers to order. If not, the whole idea of setting up a task force against illegal; road blocks would be grossly defeated".

It would be recalled that the Inspector-General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo gave n express order early this year that illegal checkpoints along the Seme-Badagry road should be dislodged following bitter complaints by his visiting counterparts from the neighbouring countries last year.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201005070955.html

FHA to build new town on Lagos-Badagry expressway

Written by Nan
Monday, 01 March 2010 22:18
The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) will soon submit a proposal to the Lagos State Government for the construction of a new town development scheme on the Lagos/Badagry Expressway, an official said.

The South-West Coordinator of FHA, Mr Fola Owolabi, said on Sunday in Lagos that the agency’s board had approved the construction of a housing estate in the area.

He said the ongoing expansion work on the road and the plan by the state government to extend a light rail to Badagry would open up the area.

“We will soon be forwarding our proposal for a new town development scheme along the road. We are counting on the goodwill of the government to approve it,” he said.

Owolabi said the concept of a new town development scheme had been adopted by FHA as one of the delivery methods for the realisation of its 100, 000 units by 2013.

He said apart from the existing housing schemes in Lagos, including the 11,000 housing units in FESTAC town, FHA had also completed 562 housing units at Diamond Estate, Isheri, Lagos.

The coordinator disclosed that the agency was constructing another housing estate at Egan, a Lagos suburb, in partnership with a private firm.

“Also at Abesan, we have just opened another site where contractors have been mobilised for the delivery of an estate being handled through direct labour,’’ said Owolabi.

He added that the FHA would deliver more than 8, 000 housing units through cooperative societies under its 2009-2013 Action Plan. (NAN)

Source: http://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14927:fha-to-build-new-town-on-lagos-badagry-expressway&catid=36:property&Itemid=30

Latest Photos:

The Four Points Hotel (Sheraton) scheduled for opening on October 1 2010.

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/fourpoints/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=3188
http://www.bb72.com/hotels/lagos/four-points-by-sheraton-lagos---opening-october-1-2010-ll5635/

This is just before the toll plaza when heading towards Epe.

Note that the cars on the right are going into and coming out of the alternative access route around the first toll plaza.

This road leads into Oniru Estate with one exit just after the first round about and the second at Amazon Oil Junction.

The Amazon Oil junction is being reconstructed into a roundabout.

The people of Lekki are not against tolling. What they are saying it that there should be alternatives for those who cannot afford to pay the toll on the ONLY available road.

Please follow this thread for more information:
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-367311.96.html#msg5933563

Excerpt:

One of the respondents on Silverbird Television (STV's) vox populi thinks govt is trying to 'smoke out poor' people from the axis!

johnie:
Nigeria: The Risk of Skewed Business Objective - Lekki Road Expansion Project Example


Even after the completion and opening of the bigger and wider Lekki Phase 1 roundabout, the traffic bottleneck at that point has not been eliminated. Add that to the severe traffic jams that continue at Jakande, Chevron and 2nd roundabouts, you begin to wonder how residents will be happy to pay any toll fees under this condition. Traditionally, road users are very willing to pay toll fees when the highway is truly a highway with minimal traffic bottlenecks. Otherwise, inner city routes will do just fine.

Real Objectives: So what really are the main objectives for the project: create wealth on a false premise or create wealth through value-addition to societal needs via problem solving? If the objective is to truly resolve the traffic issues and create a revenue stream as a result, there is nothing really wrong with that.

This is more so if the project is financed through credit or loans. If this is the case, then the project executives would ideally prioritize concept definition and analysis to develop a pragmatic approach that ensures that the problem statement is adequately addressed. Preliminary steps will include identifying all major traffic bottlenecks, root causes and then derive strategies to eliminate or manage them.

The strategy development will consider among other things issues such as; traffic density, alternative routes, traffic intersections, road width, rush hours, traffic disruption during construction, narrowest point on highway etc. These steps must be taken before finalizing any contracts, detailed design and/or construction.


Most times we want to just start, execute and then tackle the problems are they arise. It's a shame really that a project of this size and magnitude, in this day and time can be so poorly conceived and designed.

The good news is that there is still room for correction. Of course, massive change orders may be involved but that's a small price to pay when compared to the associated benefits.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201004130149.html

[quote author=paddy_lo link=topic=447708.msg6092281#msg6092281 date=1274802195]

Anybody living in lekki can afford to pay whatever the toll is. . .this is not ojo,mile 2 or badagry we are talking about[/quote]

My Philly friend,

Are you aware that there are many rural fishing settlements in Lekki?
Are you aware that there are many domestic staff living in Lekki?

That statement is sweeping don't you think?