The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said that the construction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will be completed in December.
Fashola, who spoke on Channels Television, Sunday evening, said the 127 kilometres road would be ready before Christmas, adding that this was, however, subjected to a lot of variables.
“The expected completion of this road will be in the last month of this year. We are hoping that we will be done before Christmas and that is subject to a lot of variables.
Fashola was responding to questions on the performance of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) administration on infrastructure in the last seven years.
Fashola also said the Buhari government was dealing with a lot of contracts which he could not name all on air.
“We are dealing with over a thousand different contracts, we have over a thousand contracts going on.
“We have housing projects, roads in Efon Alaye, Hadejia, Lafya, there is a lot, even if I was a computer, I cant say everything here,” he said.
“I cant say the ones that have been initiated or completed, I’m talking of roads of bout 500 km or more.
Fashola noted that a lot usually went into construction of roads, adding that governments would not just start and and complete roads in in two years.
The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has been a major road where users face a a lot of glitches, especially traffic, which has increased very recently due to recent construction going on at the Otedola part of the road, towards Berger.
However, Fashola said some factors affected road construction even before starting the projects, which include “Environmental Impact Assessment, relocation of people, actual design, budgets etc.”
“Where in the world do you finish roads in a year or two?” He queried. He noted that it did not matter who started a road or finished it.
He noted that the work on the road was not slow. He, however, added the Oyo State government, led by Seyi Makinde, “is constructing a drainage at Ojoo and that has slowed down our work.”
“As we speak now, somewhere around Ojoo, the Oyo State Government is constructing a drainage facility and that has slowed down our work,” Fashola said.
“You can’t close the road down due to heavy traffic on it. We close sections, open another. The materials being used for the construction are from Ogun State, which also come through the same road.
“It is not slow, government had not funded it sufficiently over the years,” he said. He however added that only the Buhari government was recovering looted money.
