A MUST READ: Ikorodu Residents Groan Over Road Expansion
When Ikorodu road expansion was approved just over a year ago, it was met with great joy by residents of the area with the hope that it would reduce traffic congestion in the water-logged island.
* Construction work on Ikorodu road
But as soon as the construction works began, commuters and transport workers began to experience untold hardship on the road because of the road expansion work. The congestion increased immensely and was met with a lot of criticisms by the people for which the road construction was meant for.
According to Wale Odugbesan, an accountant who works in Lagos Mainland, "the gridlock on Ikorodu road before the construction work started was so terrible that people hardly visited me and when we learnt of the expansion, we felt relieved.
"But presently, the congestion here is beyond what we used to experience especially for those who do not leave their houses early. I am sure that we shall all enjoy it on the long run but for now, we are not enjoying in Ikorodu.”
So bad is the gridlock that some residents leave their houses on Sunday evenings and do not return until Friday nights after work. "For me, I cannot afford to hurt myself staying in this gridlock on a daily basis. It was quite terrible when the whole things started.
"I had to devise a means of ensuring that I do not get late to work so I would just move from the house on Sunday evening and return on Friday night. "I understand that it has improved recently but honestly, I cannot take the risk" said a civil servant who does not want to be named.
For Mrs. Veronica Aye, a trader who plies the route regularly, the expansion has limited the number of times she goes out to get her wares at the popular Mile 12 market.
Although she expects the situation to improve very soon, she is not enjoying the kind of delay that the construction works cause from time to time. In her words: "As a trader, one has to always go out to get some goods from Mile 12 but since they started the expansion, I have had to reduce the rate at which I go to Mile 12.
"The size of my wares and the stress attached to sitting in the bus for hours have hurt badly. At my age, I do not think I can cope with such rigours again".
She also added that, "I'm sure that things will fall in place very soon but I cannot afford to die before then". Officials of the Lagos State Transport Monitoring Agency, LASTMA, are also affected by the traffic gridlock as they find it tough to control the congestion as it gets out of hand at times.
Adetunji Olufemi, a popular traffic controller on the Ikorodu road, said: "As you can see now, I am not finding it easy controlling the traffic gridlock here.
"The road construction will benefit us all but presently, we are not finding things that easy because of the congestion that greets us daily.
One of the personnel managers working with the Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, CCECC, the contractors handling the expansion, Olusegun Adegboyega, stated that everything will fall in shape soon.
The Urban 2 head who had in January, last year informed that the project would take less than two years to be completed, noted that some of their men also help with traffic control to ease the pressure on LASTMA officials.
"It is inevitable that the construction work will attract some sacrifices but I am sure that we all will be better off for it when the whole thing is settled. "We have just about a year for the project to be concluded and our men also help in controlling the gridlock so that the work load is not too much on LASTMA officials.
"The congestion was not caused by the expansion, it probably added to it but we shall overcome all of that as soon as every necessary adjustment is made" he explained.
According to the Lagos State Government, the ongoing expansion on the Ikorodu road when completed would accommodate a Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, lane from Mile 12 to Ikorodu Garage, as well as additional lanes to the already existing ones.
Source: Legit.ng
