by Rachel Ogbu

The long awaited reconstruction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will take 48 months to be completed, the President has said.

On Friday, President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated the N167bn project handled by Messrs Julius Berger Plc and Reynolds Construction Company Ltd.

President Jonathan said he was happy to see that work was beginning on the 35-year-old road and promised to see it through.

[READ: FG to spend N160.7bn on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway reconstruction ]

The Citizens reports:

While the former takes charge of work from the interchange at Sagamu to Lagos, the latter will take care of the portion from the interchange to Ibadan.

Jonathan said the rehabilitation of the road was long overdue considering the fact that it connects Lagos, the economic nerve centre of Nigeria, to other parts of the country.

The President stated that 50 per cent of the economic transactions being conducted in the country were done between Lagos – Ogun area through the 35-year-old road.

Acknowledging that the 127.8km road was long overdue for reconstruction, the President also promised that the Federal Government would intervene in the rehabilitation of other federal roads traversing Ogun State as requested by Amosun.

He said that the Federal Government in 2009 entered into a concession agreement with a concessionaire, Bi-Courtney Highway Services, as a premier Public Private Partnership scheme. He stated that the concession was terminated four years later due to non-performance by the firm.

Earlier in his speech, Amosun urged the President to pay attention to other federal roads in Ogun State to complement the state efforts in rehabilitating the roads in the state. He advised the Federal Government to ensure that the N167bn to be expended on the rehabilitation of the road did not become a waste of scarce resources.

He urged the FG to put in place a sustainable maintenance arrangement for the highway.

He attributed the deplorable condition of many infrastructural facilities across the country to the carelessness and bad maintenance culture among Nigerians, adding that Jonathan should direct the Federal Ministry of Works to employ more workers for the maintenance of the road.

Both the President and Amosun performed a symbolic construction work when they climbed one of the construction equipment and drove it for a distance.

The Federal Government had, in November 2012, revoked the failed Lagos-Ibadan Expressway concession contract awarded to Bi-Courtney Highway Services Limited in 2009.

In the concession agreement with Bi-Courtney Highway Services Ltd, which was terminated on November 19, 2012, the firm was to expand the lanes to 10 from Lagos to Sagamu, and six lanes from Sagamu to Ibadan. It was also expected to build trailer parks and five interchanges among other things at a cost of N89.5bn.