Nigeria’s federal government is considering building a fourth bridge to connect Lagos Island to the mainland because two of the existing ones are decrepit, Arise News reports.
The announcement was made on Friday by David Umahi, the minister of works, at a press conference during his tour of transport infrastructure in the area.
Lagos Island is a main business district of Nigeria’s biggest city, Lagos.
Umahi said the decision was prompted by an underwater survey of two of the three bridges to Lagos Island, the Carter and Third Mainland, which revealed “major structural defects”.
He described the findings as “terrible”, and blamed them on a lack of maintenance, illegal sand mining, the scouring effect of currents and the ageing process.
“You now see the exposure of the rods and they are rusting,” Umahi said. “Some of the piers are pulled out of the hips or out of the pile caps. That’s a very serious structural problem.”
The Third Mainland Bridge is 30 years old and the Carter is 124 years old.
The issues have already led to a restriction on heavy goods vehicles using the Third Mainland Bridge.
Julius Berger, one of the contractors that built the Third Mainland Bridge, said the damage to the Carter was so severe that it should be demolished and rebuilt.
Umahi said: “What Berger recommended and also corroborated by many other experts is that the Carter bridge should be carted away. There’s nothing to redeem from it. It should be thrown away and a new one constructed.”
He added that he had been given estimates that the replacement would cost about $210m to build.
The Federal Government is considering building a cable-stayed structure as a public–private partnership. Umahi said this project, if tolled, would be likely to attract international investment.
He added that it was possible that the new structure would be able to replace both the defective links.
He said the government was working toward designing all bridges to have a lifespan of 100 years.
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