FG to repair Third Mainland bridge with N1.055bn

THE Federal Executive Council (FEC),on Wednesday, approved the sum of N1.055 billion for the repairs and maintenance of the Third Mainland Bridge Phase II, in LagosThe council also directed the Ministry of Works to assess the stress on other bridges across the country and ensure they are regularly maintained.Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting presided over by Vice-President Namadi Sambo, Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, joined by his Works, and Science and Technology counterparts, Mike Ononlememen and Professor Ita Okon respectively, said government wanted to be proactive on the condition of the bridges.'We should not wait until something is wrong. This nation must invest on maintenance,' he said, adding that the huge sums of money currently being spent on rehabilitation of roads could have been saved if the roads had been well maintained.Maku named some of the bridges in the country, which were in poor state, to include Jebba, Lokoja, Benue, among others, noting that 'we need to ensure that there is a regular process of checking them, of measuring their integrity and that in every year's budget, there is provision to maintain the major bridges in the country.'The minister argued that the need for urgent maintenance of the bridges arose from the result of a dynamic investigation on the Third Mainland Bridge, which revealed alarming deterioration in its structure.According to the government's spokesman, 'an underwater inspection was undertaken by the ministry and the resultant preliminary report revealed alarming deterioration and serious damages on a number of pile foundations of the Third Mainland Bridge.
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