Following the collapse of the Amje Estaport Community Bridge in the Agbado/Oke-Odo area of Lagos State on May 6, 2024, due to flooding, businesses in the community have become grounded, and residents are currently battling to find an alternate route to access the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.
The bridge, which had shown signs of distress in the past before it finally collapsed just minutes after the rain started on Monday, is located at Olakunle Ojo Street, very close to Awotula Close.
Awotula Close is like a connecting point for all the waters from Kola, Moshalasi, and Abucon areas, leading the entire area to be submerged by flooding during downpours, our correspondent learnt on Tuesday.
The residents beseeched the state government to intervene immediately on the bridge, saying it was difficult for them to leave their homes whenever it rained.
Also, because the bridge was the only means for locals to access the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, a resident and business owner in the neighbourhood who goes by the name Adeola, bemoaned the fact that after the bridge collapsed, people could no longer access other towns to meet their needs.
“Presently, there is no alternative; people are just finding their ways to navigate through the damaged bridge. Some people will even have to take a longer route to connect to the major highways. This is the only accessible road to many communities within the area. The bridge is very important,” Adeola said.
“This is beyond what the communities can do. There is nothing that we can do that will withstand the test of time. If the flood could damage a whole bridge, how much more makeshift? The only thing we need now is the government’s intervention.
“Several letters had been written to the local government, but they said they didn’t have the capacity to fix the road. They said it is the state government that can repair such damage,” a resident, known simply as Soji, added.
The Chairman of the Amje Estaport CDA, Pastor Samson Akinde, told PUNCH Metro that, “The flood damaged the bridge’s pillars, weakening its foundation, and washed away the sand supporting adjacent drainage. The collapsed bridge served approximately 20 communities, acting as the sole link road from the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway into Old Ota.”
Also, the Secretary, Community Development Association, Mr Adeola Oredola, told our correspondent during an interview on Tuesday that residents were living in fear, warning that any downpour before the repair of the bridge might lead to further destruction of property.
He said, “It has grounded businesses. People cannot even move out. The alternative at this time of fuel subsidy is not even favourable. We were thinking of creating a plank over the area, but there is no guarantee that the plank will survive another rain.
“Car owners cannot move out, and people working outside the area cannot go to their places of work. From the bridge to the highway, it takes less than three minutes, but since it has collapsed, people now spend more than 20 minutes connecting to the highway. Some residents even risk it by jumping into the ditch just to get their places of work on time.”
Gboyega Akosile, the Chief Press Secretary to the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, told our correspondent that the government would soon commence the repair. He, however, could not provide the date the repair would begin.
“Yes, we are repairing it. Timeline? I can’t say give you that now,” Akosile stated via a text message on Tuesday.
