Third Mainland Bridge: Fed Govt explains why N33b repair was rejected

The last may not have been heard about the controversy trailing the repair of the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos.

Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, yesterday told the Senate that his ministry turned down the request of a firm that asked for N33 billion to carry out repair work.

Senate Committee on Works had invited the minister to ascertain what his ministry is doing to save the Third Mainland Bridge from collapse.

But Onolememen told members of the committee that from the report before him, the bridge does not face any danger of collapse.

He said the N33 billion was rejected because the sea-diver firm that asked for it went beyond its brief.

The minister added that the firm did not only submit the underwater photograph, it went beyond its brief by going ahead without doing any test on the bridge piles, but arrived at a solution and recommended a particular technology, which cost the ministry N33billion.

He said they needed about N5 billion to carry out repairs on the most critical sessions of the bridge, the first two sessions that required immediate repair.

Said he: “From the perspective of the ministry, we have every reason to believe this report is consistent with the report of all the experts we have invited in this matter, because until you carry out engineering test, you cannot get into a conclusion that would frighten people.

“In the course of maintenance of the Third Mainland Bridge, I told Lagosians at a time that if I have any report to the effect that Third Mainland Bridge was going to collapse, I love my life, I will not be holding press conferences on top of the bridge everyday. I went to Lagos to inspect this project.”

-- The Nation