By Seyi Babalola
The soaring price of diesel (Automated Gas Oil-AGO) may affect the projected delivery of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, The Nation gathered on Tuesday.
Already the scarcity of the product is affecting the pace of work, and threatening the delivery of the project by December this year.
Disclosing this to Sunrise News, the Federal Controller of Works for Lagos State Engr. Olukayode Popoola said diesel is now N800 per litre and sourcing it has remained a major challenge, a development he said has been affecting the pace of work.
He however assured that despite the seeming lull in the ongoing rehabilitation exercise, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will be delivered this year, Popoola said.
The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has been on the waiting list of successive administrations since the wake of Nigeria’s fourth republic in 1999. The Muhammadu Buhari administration will like to add the completion of this critical infrastructure which accounts for over two million vehicle count, making it Nigeria’s busiest road, linking Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial mega city to Ibadan, the administrative headquarters of the Southwest to the South-South, and the Northern parts of the country.
Speaking on Tuesday, Popoola said the project would be delivered before the end of the year, in line with the Ministerial directive.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola had in November last year, handed the contractor- Julius Berger the 2022 deadline. Fashola said the road, as well as the Second Niger Bridge are the legacy projects of the administration.
Popoola, who was responding to the seeming lull in the project, said the slow pace was as a result of the scarcity of (Automotive Gas Oil) diesel as well as bitumen, the coating material used in finishing road work.
He said: “The expressway rehabilitation project is still ongoing and will be delivered before the end of the year. The pace of work has slowed down because of lack of diesel as well as scarcity of bitumen. Both are expensive now, but the contractor has, however, assured us of its readiness to deliver this year.”
Popoola said the contractor had to slow down because they cannot be doing variation every time. “That is why they are slowing down, but they have assured us that they are already scouting for where to get the diesel and material and we hope that once they secure this, the project will continue and be delivered on schedule before the end of the year,” he added.
What remained of the project is less than 80 meters – from the end of the Long Bridge to the old Toll Gate.