Over a long time now, commuters, motorists and residents living along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, who ply the ever-busy expressway, have been passing through hell as a result of the ongoing unending reconstruction work on the road.
The truth is that the road users have been going through pains resulting from the heavy gridlock on both sides of the dual carriageway for a long time. The untold hardship and pains have been there since the commencement of the reconstruction of the road by construction giant, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc about five years ago. But of recent, the traffic situation has worsened thereby causing untold hardship on road users.
For instance, starting from last week Friday, the whole stretch of the road was on lock down from morning to the early hours of Saturday for commuters and motorists due to the reconstruction of the expressway at Berger.
The effect of the barricade is responsible for massive traffic build-up on both sides of the road that is now causing commuters and motorists several hours to get to their destinations.
The gridlock continued Saturday and Sunday (yesterday). For Lagos-bound commuters and motorists, the gridlock was compounded by ram sellers and buyers at Kara Ram market as traffic extended from the long bridge to Berger yesterday.
Meanwhile, efforts to get the reaction of the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos State, Engr. Olukorede Keisha, were unsuccessful.
However, Lagos State Government has urged the Federal Ministry Works and Housing to suspend further work till after the Eid-el-Kabir celebration.
The Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, Engr. Abdulhafiz Toriola, told newsmen that the Ministry of Transportation has approached the Controller of Works in Lagos of the need to suspend further work along the axis to ease off expected influx of vehicles and reduce hardship during the coming Eid-el-Kabir, Muslim celebration, scheduled to commence on Wednesday.
