By Izunna Okafor, Awka
The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced that the First Niger Bridge in Onitsha Anambra State that was temporarily closed to enable contractors carry out critical urgent maintenance works on it would no longer be re-opened today, September 21, as earlier promised.
The Acting Federal Controller of Works, Anambra Field Headquarters, Timothy Emenike, announced this while interacting with newsmen on Monday, which was the initial proposed date for the reopening of the Bridge, which was closed on September 7 for a rehabilitation work that was proposed to take two weeks or less.
According to Engr. Emenike, certain factors, especially persistent rainfall, caused significant delays in the execution and the completion of the ongoing maintenance works on the bridge, thereby necessitating extension of the project’s timeline and having the bridge remain closed till the work is completed.
He recalled how floods caused by the heavy and persistent rainfall recently washed off some portions of the work they had already executed on the bridge.
While acknowledging that they had actually gone far in the project and would have completed it in the record time if not for the challenges that affected them, he further mentioned poor illumination at the site as another major hindrance that delayed them, given that they planned to be working day and night, but poor lighting couldn’t allow them to work up to their full potential and capacity at night.
He, however, noted that the problems of poor lighting and poor sanitation around the site had been resolved.
Consequent upon these, the Federal Controller announced next week Monday, September 28, as the new proposed date for the re-opening of the bridge, subject to weather conditions.
According to him, there is a need for at least three days of dry weather to resume and further speed up the work.
Emenike also apologized and appealed to motorists and commuters who have been the worst hit by inconveniences caused by the temporal closure of the Bridge and the additional one-week extension of the project timeline to exercise more patience and to continue using the Second Niger Bridge as alternative route pending the completion of the rehabilitation work, which he said will be inspected and approved by the Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, before it will be reopened.
