FG To Close Third Mainland Bridge For Six Months From Jan. 2024

LAGOS – The Federal Government says it will shut down the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos again next year for six straight months from January.

The Federal Controller of Works in Lagos State, Olukorede Keisha, made this known while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, October 20, 2023.

She said the long shutdown would enable the government to carry out comprehensive repair work on the bridge.

It would be recalled that the Federal Government had earlier said the bridge would be closed to traffic from Saturday, October 21 to Sunday, October 22, 2023, for palliative work.

Keisha confirmed that the extensive repair work would commence in late January 2024.

She stated, “So we were saying let us do a complete overhaul of the asphalt overlay. Some of them have been long overdue because we haven’t done that in the last 30 years. It is just the failures that have shown up that we have been addressing.”

Keisha added that the reconstruction would involve a complete overhaul of the asphalt layer on both sides and then replacing it with new one to last the next 10 years.

She said, “The Federal government has awarded that contract already, and preparatory works are pending when the contractor moves to the site because there are some elements of repairs that need to be imported.

“Pending that we just want to do palliative work to provide relief for motorists,” she said.

Keisha stated further, “It is going to take the contractor three months to import those elements needed for the repair.

“One bound will be for three months then we will divert to the other bound (traffic) once we are done with this bound we will bring back traffic to this lane.

“Afterwards, we are going to have a very brand new road.”