December 15, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government has declared the second Niger bridge open for one month during the Yuletide season.
Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, ordered the opening of the bridge from 12 midnight 14th December, when he inspected the palliative measures put in place to make the road motorable.
Fashola, who took a walk round the bridge during the inspection, counselled road users plying the bridge to “drive safely and responsibly” in order not to defeat the purpose of the project.
He noted that the opening of the Second Niger Bridge would alleviate the sufferings of the motoring public, who always experienced gridlock during the Yuletide.
“The result is now what we see when people are talking about poverty; the biggest part of it is not monetary poverty; it is multidimensional poverty.
“Spending two to three days trying to cross a bridge is poverty. This should take just a few minutes so you can go and do more productive things.
“President Buhari approved that since the bridge was finished, we should create an access road; so that during Christmas people can begin to experience what it would feel like to ply the bridge.
“The maximum speed limit on Nigerian roads is 100 km per hour. Don’t drive 101 kilometres per hour. The President will be happy to see users drive safely and responsibly while using this road, especially during the Christmas and New Year seasons.
“It would be open for traffic going from the west to the east from December 15, 2022, to January 15, 2023.
“Let me be clear again; we haven’t finished construction work on the bridge, but we would open it for people to use to relieve the pressure from the one bridge. On January 15, 2023, we would reverse that movement for those coming from the east to the west,” he said.
Fashola also emphasised that the toll plaza would remain free passage during the period.
Meanwhile, the Resident Engineer for the project, in the Ministry, Oluwaseyi Martins, assured travellers and motorists of smooth movement during the Yuletide.
He explained that the bridge would be open to traffic inward Onitsha-Owerri from midnight until January 3, when it would be open to traffic inward Asaba from Onitsha/Owerri till January 15, 2023.
Martins said the toll plaza would be open to connect the bridge all through the period of one month.
He assured road users that the bridge would be lit at night all through the one month it would be open.
