Repairs of Kola, Moshalashi Alagbado bad portions begin on Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway

By Our Correspondent

The Kola, Moshalashi axis of Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, reported on July 2, 2020 by The DEFENDER as a “case of infrastructure collapsed beyond pardon”, has started receiving attention.

This is as the Federal Government’s contractors, Julius Berger, mobilised to the road construction site. Recall the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway rehabilitation contract has been awarded to the German construction company although work, which started from another hitherto bad portion, had been at slow pace.

The presence of the construction giant started showing on the road about a week ago.

As at the time our correspondent visited on Tuesday, work had begun in earnest with diversion visibly placed at a point between Alakuko and Moshalashi areas to ease vehicular movement while the work lasts.

When asked the extent the work would go, an engineer who spoke on condition of anonymity told our correspondent that it was not just a palliative but thorough rebuilding work being done.

He said, “We are surely going to tar the road after we will have completed the site clearing and preparation we are currently doing.”

The DEFENDER kick-started the campaign for government attention to bad portion of the road on July 2 when it published a report it titled, “Kola, Mosalashi Alagbado portion on Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway case of infrastructure collapsed beyond pardon”.

In the report it described the affected portions as two major vital bus stops along Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway in Lagos coming and going towards Ikeja and Oshodi and named them Moshalashi Bus Stop and Kola Bus Stop on the Alagbado/Alakuko axis.

This portion of the high way had been in bad shape mostly for the period of lockdown which had higher activities of heavy duty trucks, so much that it was beginning to be difficult imagining that citizens living in that area and road users plying the route were actually living in what is popularly called the Centre of Excellence.

This online newspaper reported that at over 50 years of creation, it was below expectation that the stretch between Ikeja, the seat of government of the state which is only some 10 minutes to the boundary with Ogun State, Toll Gate, would still be in such bad shape at a time like this when governance or project monitoring is easily done with the aid of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Those that spoke called on Federal and Lagos State governments to rise to this occasion and fix the road damage that also affected the junction adjoining the AIT/Raypower stations in the area.

While appreciating the good work of government across Nigeria, especially in other parts of Lagos State, citizens who use the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway called the attention of authorities to the unexplainable infrastructure breakdown on the much busy road.

The worst of the sections of the road had been Kola and Mosalashi Alagbado axis, which has led to container-loaded trucks and other utility vehicles falling on one another causing damages to properties and injuries to people.

At Moshalashi Bus Stop in the area, lorries loaded with goods of various types fell daily, according to eyewitness accounts and what we found physically on ground.

In the meantime, people in the area and users of the road are already appreciating the Muhammadu Buhari government for listening to to their crisis as published by The DEFENDER on July 2.

They are however calling on the government, particularly, the Minister of works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), to direct serious supervision to ensure quality work is done.

One of them said said, “While we appreciate this listening ears of President Buhari, we however wish to say the contractors need to be told that parts of the road that need drainage should be given.”