FG Weighing Recommendations To Reconstruct Carter, 3rd Mainland Bridges Over Structural Defects - Umahi

 

OLORUNDARE ENIMOLA, Lagos 

Senator David Umahi, the Minister of Works and Housing has said the Federal Government has received expert recommendations for the reconstruction of Carter at N320bn and Third Mainland Bridges over their current structural defects caused by poor maintenance, long years of neglect and expired lifespan of the bridges, especially in the case of Carter Bridge.

Senator Umahi gave the hint on Friday whilst inspecting ongoing repairs on the Carter bridge in Lagos, saying, himself and his team has being visiting the bridge since the beginning of 2024, leading to the discovery of the defects on the pi-caps and piers of the Bridge.

He said, "We brought in a number of Ministers, especially the Minister of Finance and National Assembly members, before contracting the job to Julius Berger to work on all the structural elements both under the deck and above the water, which they have done up to 80 percent. But part of their work is also understanding what is going on below the water in Carter and Third Mainland Bridges.

Engr. Thomas Christen, Regional Manager for Julius-Berger, Southwest Region, affirmed that his company actually got the contract for repair

works on Carter Bridge in 2024, explaining that the scope is the repair of the substructure, involving the pile caps and the handrails, that you can see here on the bridge.

He said, "we also did some underwater investigations and found out that

what we were awarded with, is not sufficient for the bridge. The substructure underwater is heavily damaged and the bridge is at the end of its lifetime. We did some investigations and made proposals how we can repair the bridge.

"We also investigated the possibility of replacing this old Carter Bridge with a new Carter Bridge and at the end of the day think is more suitable, because of the nature of the job, which is very complicated to repair it and takes a long time. The reconstruction of a new

bridge is almost the same price and is almost the same construction time and 

you have the possibility to increase the design life of the bridge again to 100 years." He stressed.

Engr. Thomas further said, the building of a new bridge will have no problems for the next 100 years, with the fact that his company is in talks with international

investors which are interested to bring funding to Nigeria to finance the reconstruction of the bridge, which would be not possible with the rehabilitation of the bridge.