In an effort targeted at easing the pain commuters and vehicles experience on roads, Nigeria’s Minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde Fashola has disclosed that the Federal Government (FG) led by President Muhammadu Buhari is planning to repair about 50 bridges nationwide.

According to Ceoafrica, Fashola who unveiled the plan when he was inspecting the rehabilitation of Lagos Ring Road Bridge and Approach to the Third Mainland Bridge project on Tuesday in Lagos, said that some columns and beams of the Third Mainland Bridge were threatened because of human activities, sand filling and ecological factors which resulted in erosion.

“The work we have come to inspect was awarded some years back when there was an indication of errors here on the Lagos Outer Ring Road which is the beginning of what leads on to the Third Mainland Bridge itself which is just about here.

“This road has moved as a result of some sub-soil displacement, and it is being caused by erosion, sand filling and other activities. Fashola said, adding that the project which was slowed down by funding would be completed in November.

The minister said that many of the bridges in Lagos and across the country had suffered neglect and had not been undergoing routine maintenance, which the current administration was determined to correct and has begun the process for maintenance of about 50 bridges across the country “if it receives the legislatives support”.

“Many of the bridges we built in the country over the last four, five decades have not been under any form of maintenance; we now have a three-year plan affecting over 50 bridges across the country for maintenance, repairs and restoration, which would cost about N270 billion for the three years.

He however decried indiscriminate parking and trading activities in some areas of the state which he stressed that the government would soon take action, thereby urging the people engaged in those acts to start moving voluntarily in their own best interest.

Furthermore, the minister directed engineers to begin work to realign the Apongbon bridge, which Gianfranco Albertazzi, the Joint Managing Director, Boroni Prono and Co Nig. Ltd- contractors of the project, said that some piers, alignment, decks and piles of the bridge were affected.