The Federal Government has taken delivery of the Second Niger Bridge from the contractor, Julius Berger PLC, six months after it was commissioned by former President, Muhammad Buhari.
Minister of Works, Chief David Umahi, told journalists shortly after he was conducted round the project and other facilities by the Managing Director of Julius Berger, Dr. Lars Richter, that he was satisfied with the level of work done by the contractor.
President Buhari on Tuesday May 23, 2023 commissioned the Second Niger Bridge, six days to the end of his administration.
The Second Niger Bridge was conceptualised in 2005. In 2014, there was an attempt to begin the project through Public Private Partnership (PPP) but this was not successful. The construction began in 2016 with the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF).
Umahi, who commended the previous and present administration for doing a lot to bring the work to completion, said the job was good and beautiful, stating: “We have light issue. And we’ve put things together on how to permanently have light, especially at night. What we have agreed is to deploy solar solution in the coming weeks so that every night, we don’t have to run diesel.
“The roads are going to be completed when we have completed the two inter-changes, one is taking us off from Asaba town to cut off the traffic, and the other one is going to be done by Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) Ltd, to avoid Onitsha town and take you straight to Obosi.
“President Bola Tinubu is committed to the project. We’re going to acquire more, so that we can build service stations, filling stations, restaurants, supper markets, and other facilities, as we see in the western world.
“We are determined to that, the need to do this with the inter changes is going to be a very smart one, so that over the years, we can have a beautiful and maintained road.”
Umahi further assured of adequate security of the bridge by the provision of closed-circuit (CCTV) cameras and some security personnel so that people can get security assistance within five minutes.
The Julius Berger head, Dr. Richter, in his remarks, said that the event was a technical handover after the project was inaugurated by the former administration.
He said that work was successfully completed in time and Julius Berger has delivered highest quality of work.
Also, in his remark, the Director, Bridges Design and Construction, South, Federal Ministry of Works, Mr Bede Obioha, tasked the residents around the Second Niger bridge to help secure the already installed facilities and those that are yet to be installed.