FERMA, LASG disagrees on road degeneration in Lagos

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The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) on Monday blamed the Lagos State Government for blocking the median drain while constructing a diversion to Alimosho Road on Lagos/Abeokuta Expressway.

Mr Kehinde Afolabi, the Federal Roads Maintenance Engineer in charge of Lagos West, said this in an interview with
NAN in Lagos.

Afolabi said though the state government obtained permission to create the diversion while rehabilitating bridges on the axis, it was expected to restate the road to its original position.

According to him, lined drain that is supposed to discharge water from the road median was tampered with by the state government.

He said that a drain channel on the road median which connected the one that discharged water to the road shoulders was blocked with crushed stone materials.

Afolabi said that the agency had also advised the state government to create a ramp or new channel underground to correct the problem.

He said that in the alternative, the state government should return the New Jersey concrete barriers to its original position and open up the old median channel that was blocked.

The FERMA official said that the agency would continue with its maintenance work on the road pending when the state government would open up the blocked drain channels.

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In his reaction, the state Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, said that there was no median drain blocked during the diversion.

Hamzat said that the problem with the Lagos/Abeokuta Expressway and other federal highways in the state was that “they were constructed as rural roads without proper drainage channels”.

The commissioner said that the highway was designed to discharge water to the sides of the roads which were initially vegetations before developments sprang up in the area.

He said that flood as a result of rainfall, which has nowhere to flow to, was causing constant degeneration along the diversion route.

“The reason they (FERMA) are giving is totally wrong, it is a wrong premise,” the commissioner said.

He said his office had not received any letter from FERMA on the matter, adding that the state government was ready to partner with the agency to resolve the problem.

NAN reports that the diversion was created in February during the rehabilitation of expansion joints on Iyana-Ipaja and Dopemu Bridges to create alternative routes for motorists.

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