By News Editor
With the Blue light rail of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) at about 85 per cent completed, delivery by the fourth quarter of the year, is not only achievable but attainable, the Managing Director, Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) Engr Abimbola Akinajo has said.
Giving the assessment during an inspection of the sea wall reconstruction and reclamation exercise, which was held at Elegbata, Ebute Ero, in the outer Marina axis of the state on Tuesday, Engr Akinajo, said with the successful reclamation and rebuilding of the sea wall, achieving Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s mandate, to deliver by the fourth quarter has become realizable.
Akinajo said: “The Blue line is comfortably at 85 percent completion rate and we are confident that by April the structure for Marina would have been completed, and by June/July, all of our piers would have been done and we would be able to lay the tracks on them in readiness of the completion and test run by November.”
The LAMATA chief who described the breakthrough as a milestone for both LAMATA and the contractor, said with the construction of the piling, it would be easy to construct the piers and complete the construction across the Lagos lagoon.
She said despite the initial study which was carried out at that particular area, the contractor still had to contend with a huge volume of wrecks, and even when they got to the sea bed, they still met with wrecks and debris which from the engineering point of view made the project herculean. So completing it and succeeding in reclaiming and constructing a new sea wall along the reclaimed portion is a huge relief and an engineering feat for both the agency and the contractor.
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She said: “For a long time, we have been stuck here because we could not cross the lagoon. You saw piers coming from the National Theatre, Iganmu area stopping somewhere before the lagoon, while at the other side, we have piers coming from the inner Marina area and stopping, so the linking which we are starting today signifies the completion of the linking of both ends. We now manage to complete the sea wall reclamation and repairs. We have to moved inside for about eight metres and we are able to complete the sea wall for the entire stretch of the distance. This would allow us to complete the missing portion between the Iganmu end and the Marina station. For us it is a big milestone because now we can complete all civil infrastructure works for the Blue line and put our tracks on it and put the rails on it.”
Akinajo was led round the project by the General Manager, Southwest China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, (CCECC) Kelum Lee, and the Lagos Rail Mass transit Blue Line Project Manager Mr John Zhang .
Representative of Fountain Construction Company Ltd, Sabur Jubril, lauded the state government for bringing the Blue light rail to life. He said his company is happy to be involved in the reclamation and construction of the sea wall of the reclaimed area, even as he said with the completion of the reclamation, the contractor, CCECC would be able to complete the project way ahead of the scheduled date of delivery.