It is still too early to heave a sigh of relief on the 3.5km Ago- Amuwo Odofin link road where some residents have left their homes while shopping complexes, Petrol filling stations and other businesses have been forced to close down owing to massive flooding that has created an artificial river on a motor way.
Work on the expansion of the road and provision of palliative measures to the users of the road began seven weeks ago with excavation, blinding and setting of the pre-cast drainage going on all at once.
The Chinese Construction firm, CCEC has maintained all- round the clock construction work on the site which has been a source of consistent public criticism for the administration of Governor Babatunde Fashola which was seen to be discriminating against the residents of the area.
An official of Lagos state government who is supervising the work said the target of the government is to complete the right hand side of the road by the end of September and move over to the left side to avoid creating further hardship to the road users.
The road work has seen the channeling of the massive volume of water on the road to the canal and for the first time in over seven years residents driving on that road can see the dry surface and the crater filled road.
Lagos state government said the Ago road had been a source of concern but budgetary constraints had caused the delay in completing the linking of the Amuwo end of the road.
The attempt by Gov. Fashola to justify the abandonment of work on the road by linking it to litigations by landlords whose property were earmarked for demolition provoked wide spread criticism from other tax payers who felt short changed by the scotched earth policy of the state government.
A resident of the area Chief Ben Okonkwo said the commencement of work on the road is a welcome development but there is the need for cooperation from residents especially those who are conveying containers and put heavy duty trucks on the road which is under construction.
Chief Okonkwo said put such heavy trucks on the road would facilitate early failure of the road.
Mrs. Caro Umeano said the media should be commended for putting relentless pressure on the government which claimed that it had 68 other project sites and Ago was not seen as a priority.
She said “we thank God that we have so many media people here, if not, they were not prepared to save the residents of Ago of the pains inflicted on them by bad road.
Journalist learnt that the state government has ordered the contractor handling the street lights to use the LED rechargeable bulbs as agreed on the contract document. The bulbs used on the street light poles have been found to be substandard.
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