By Kingsley Adegboye

THE Lagos State Government has attributed the slow pace of work on the construction of the 10-lane Lagos/Badagry Expressway expansion project to the challenge of establishing the right of way due the the prevalence of various obstructing structures under the ground.

one of the bad portions of the road

These structures, according to the commissioner for Works & Infrastructure, Kadri Hamzat, need to be removed before the right of way can be established.

Hamzat who disclosed this at the Lagos State annual ministerial briefing for 2014 which kicked off last week, added that besides the challenge of removing the underneath structures which comprise heavy pipes and cables, another factor impeding the early completion of the project is the fact that the right hand side has a terrain that is seriously swampy.

Hamzat disclosed that the Festac side of the multi-billion dollar road project has at some portions between two to three metres depth of water. He explained that considering the rains, it is difficult to access those swampy terrains by both equipment and workforce.

The commissioner explained that it has been subdivided into phases aimed at ensuring that each chunk is undertaken in a manageable manner.

The phases are Lot 1 (eastern section) beginning from Babs Animasahun Road to Mile2 (Mazamaza) which is 5.625km, Lot2 (central section) that begins from Mile2 (Mazamaza) to Agbara comprising 24.5km.

The sections, he said have further been subdivided from Mazamaza to Agboju which is Segment1 of Lot 2A while from Agboju to Trade Fair is segment II and Trade Fair to Okokomaiko is segment III.of Lot 3 which comprises (Western Section) Agbara to Badagry which is 28.3km.

Hamzat disclosed that between 2011 and date, 161 roads have been completed while 221 road projects are ongoing as at today. He however explained why some road projects are delayed on delivery. He noted that the fact that a project is being delayed does not imply that it has been abandoned.

According to him, there is presently a change in construction methods, stressing that there are more off-site than on-site activities.

“Experience has also shown that people resort to the use of courts to assert their rights. This is the case of Ago Palace Way which was delayed due to court injunction”, Hamzat stated.

Defending the choice of roads to be undertaken at a particular time, he said the choice is a function of possible network connectivity, traffic improvement, necessity, traffic volume, road capacity, flood control and management. He added that during the period of January 2013 to April 2014, the ministry, through its projects, has created 92, 339 job.