Lagos-Ibadan expressway: Fashola urges contractors to speed up work

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, at the weekend undertook an inspection tour of the ongoing dualisation of the Oyo-Ogbomosho road and the reconstruction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. He urged contractors on the latter to speed up work in order to guarantee smooth journey experience for travellers across the country during the coming festivities.

Fashola, who undertook the inspection tour of the roads while returning from Ilorin where he attended the fifth National Council on Land, Housing and Urban Development, said although the contractors were faced with some constraints such as unpredictable weather and the fact that they have to work while also managing traffic, they must plan their work in such a way that would ensure a more tolerable driving experience during the festivities and general safety on the roads.

“You must plan your work in such a way that you’re able to accommodate that traffic and also help to make the journey time of commuters better during that period. They will be travelling home and coming back, and I also will like you to improve the safety signs on this highway,” Fashola told the contractors.

Noting that the Muslim festival, Eid-el-Kabir, was around the corner and that the end of the year festivities like Christmas and the New Year were fast approaching, the minister urged the contractors handling the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to consciously plan to accommodate the expected high volume of traffic from the events.

“Start calibrating your activities to prepare to take in that traffic, it will come, but the big one will come, I think, sometime in the end of the year when everybody is moving back from home. The target is to make that experience better than last year’s,” Fashola said.