The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi says the continuous pilling of asphalt on the Third Mainland Bridge could cause vehicles to overturn.

Umahi said this on Friday during his appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

“You see, each carriageway of the Third Mainland Bridge is 14 metres which means that each carriageway is two standard carriageways. So, we are dealing with 14 carriageways. What has happened is that in engineering design, there is what is called a dead load and the asphalt is a dead load. What that bridge [design] is meant to carry is two inches of overlay asphalt,” he said during the show.

“But over the years, in the course of maintenance, when a portion of it is scratched, what will happen is that they will come and clean it up and put another asphalt on it. So, we have an asphalt thickness of between four and twelve inches. So, if you are riding on that Third Mainland Bridge, you will see that you are on a superelevation and that is dangerous. It can cause overturning. And again, it [Third Mainland Bridge] is not designed to carry that dead load.”

Away from the Third Mainland Bridge, the former Ebonyi State Governor gave a new completion date for the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

While Umahi had earlier said the project would be delivered mid-September after multiple deadlines, the minister put November as the new date.

“Let’s give it November,” Umahi said. “We may have a little bit of challenges on funding but it is something that I intend to discuss with Mr President,” he added.

“The funding is coming from the PIDF – Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund – programme. Right now, we have a balance of N18 billion on that axis to pay. The stringent condition is that you cannot take funds that are meant for one project to do the other one.”