With the Blue Light rail of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) about 85 per cent ready, delivery by the fourth quarter of the year is not only achievable, but also attainable, Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) Managing Director, Abimbola Akinajo, has said.
Giving the assessment yesterday during an inspection of the sea wall reconstruction and reclamation held at Elegbata, Ebute Ero, in the outer Marina axis, Akinajo, an engineer, said with the successful reclamation and rebuilding of the sea wall, achieving Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s mandate to deliver by the fourth quarter had become realisable.
She said: “The Blue Line is comfortably at 85 per cent completion and we are confident that by April, the structure for Marina would have been completed, and by June/July, our piers would have been done and we would be able to lay the tracks on them in readiness for the completion and test run by November.”
The LAMATA chief, who described the breakthrough as a milestone for LAMATA and the contractor, said with the construction of the piling, it would be easy to build the piers and complete the construction across the Lagos lagoon.
She said despite the initial study, which was carried out at that area, the contractors still had to contend with a huge volume of wrecks, and even when they got to the sea bed, they still met with wrecks and debris, which from the engineering point of view, made the project Herculean.
Akinajo said: “So, completing it and succeeding in reclaiming and constructing a new sea wall along the reclaimed portion is a huge relief and an engineering feat for the agency and the contractor.”
“For a long time, we have been stuck here because we could not cross the lagoon. You saw piers coming from the National Theatre, Iganmu area stopping somewhere before the lagoon, while at the other side, we have piers coming from the inner Marina area and stopping. So the linking, which we are starting today, signifies the completion of the linking of both ends. We now manage to complete the sea wall reclamation and repairs. We have to move inside for about eight metres and we are able to complete the sea wall for the entire stretch of the distance.
“This will allow us to complete the missing portion between the Iganmu end and the Marina station. For us it is a big milestone because now we can complete all civil infrastructure works for the Blue Line and put our tracks on it and put the rails on it.”
She was led round the project by the General Manager, Southwest, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, (CCECC), Kelum Lee, and the Lagos Rail Mass transit Blue Line Project Manager, Mr. Zhang Jon.
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