The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has said that the last Mile of the reconstruction of the Lagos Ibadan Expressway, is now to be completed in the first quarter of 2023.
The ongoing administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had slated to the completion of the project for last year.
Fashola however said that revealed that the twin issues of insufficient funds and the increasing price of construction materials had delayed the completion of the project..
The Minister made the clarification when he appeared on a Television Continental programme, even as he blamed the previous administration for neglecting critical infrastructure.
Fashola said the road could have been built between 1999 and 2015 but it wasn’t., adding that the road is in better shape than the Buhari administration inherited and it is now at the last mile of completion.
The Minister stated that before now the road was removed from the budget completely and he had to engage the National Assembly until the President unveiled the presidential infrastructure development fund. which was essentially from investments from the Nigerian LNG and funds recovered from outside Nigeria.
He said so, when people talk about corruption and anti-corruption, a President who goes to recover funds stolen and put it in investment for his people is the real anti-corruption as far as he was concerned.
On the crash barriers, he said the barriers were there because the government is building through a major transport artery, adding that the last traffic count indicates that at least 40,000 vehicles use that road from the Lagos end to the Sagamu end.
According to him,after Sagamu it drops to 22 thousand so that has to be managed to ensure the safety of the construction workers.
Fashola urged motorists using the route not to expect to drive fast in such a construction zone, for the fact that there will be a bit of slowdown and it is in that slowdown that ‘how we behave’ becomes very important
