Fashola Clarifies Report On Third Mainland Bridge Closure

The Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has debunked reports that the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos will be shut down for 27 months, clarifying that it will only be closed for three days, starting from July 27.

“I think somebody mistook the date 27th of July for 27 months, I don’t know how that came about but there was a signed statement from my office and it didn’t contain 27 months,” he said.

“The statement we put out was that it was going to be closed for three days, from the 27th of July.

Fashola said this while addressing the mix up over the period for the closure of the bridge, on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday.

He also stated that the closure is to help the contractors assess the true state of the facility, after which repair works will commence by the end of the year or at the start of next year (2019).

“We were torn between maintenance and safety and people’s convenience but essentially, the first three days at the end of this month as issued in our press statement will be for investigative work to be conducted to assess the current condition.

“There is a procurement for maintenance that has been approved but between that time and now, some things may have changed so we wanted to do an examination again just to be sure that there has been no material deterioration beyond what we procured.

“After that, our engineers and contracting firms will then lay out the plan of works.

“Some of the equipment and materials have to be imported, either later in the year or early next year, and then we will be able to start the repair.

“That will imminently compel some closure as we have had in the past when I was governor. We closed it for about 12 weeks but (this time) we will try to reduce the period of closure as much as possible,” he added.