Blames consulting firm
LAGOS—THE Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company, CCECC, which constructed the LASU-Iba road, has dissociated itself from the error that led to the recent collapse of a portion of the highway.
A single-box culvert measuring 1.8mx1.3 metre at the Adoff Bus Stop caved in last month due to heavy rainstorm and cut off Iba-bound traffic from the LASU end of the dual carriageway.

CCECC’s Deputy Managing Director, Shi Hongbing, in a statement, weekend, blamed the collapse of the culvert on a “design error” committed by an indigenous consulting firm contracted by its client,  Lagos Ministry of Works & Infrastructure.

Free N150m worth of repair

However, as part of its community social responsibility, Hongbing said CCECC was ready to replace the damaged culvert with a N150 million 12-metre bridge at no extra cost to the state government within 30 days.

He said the company had made a proposal for the repairs and was awaiting the government’s approval.

Instead of a culvert, the CCECC said either a stone base or deck-on-pile ought to have been recommended for the foundation design and not a laterite compact, due to the swampy nature of the area.

In the interim, Hongbing said he had mobilised men and equipment to the site to guide traffic and lessen the impact on public transport along the LASU-Iba axis.

He said: “Engineers from the Ministry of Works & Infrastructure and CCECC have carried out the soil investigations on site. Our engineers had made proposals to replace the culvert with a 12-metre bridge to solve the problem.

“We are waiting for the approval of the new proposal. We are going to construct the bridge at own cost within one month.”

He stressed the need for the provision and completion of pedestrian walkways and drainage channels, all of which had been accommodated in the Phase II of the project, along the entire stretch of the road.

Hongbing said the CCECC had, since May 2009, made a proposal for the next phase on which the state will spent N3.2 billion.

Why inauguration delay

An official of the Ministry of Works & Infrastructure, said the non-inauguration of the project after its completion and handover by the contractor since 2009, was deliberate to allow for the completion of the Phase 1I.

“The state government would have inaugurated the road since its completion last year, but because of its desire to provide all other accessories.”