The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has alerted the public to the dangers of driving on the major bridges in Lagos such as Third Mainland, Cartar and Marina bridges.
Umahi disclosed that motorists are not aware of the danger beneath the structures due to carbonization and chlorination on the pile caps.
OsunDailyNG reports that a pile cap is a thick concrete mat that sits on top of piles to create a stable foundation for a bridge.
Speaking at the weekend while taking a tour of under bridges in Lagos with members of the National Assembly Committees on Works, Umahi explained that chlorination is the ability of the pile cap to absorb the chloride water that is attacking the rod inside.
“And if that is not arrested, what you see is that suddenly this very strong structure will become like biscuits because the reinforcement inside would have rusted. And this is the major problem, but even greater problem is what is happening below the water with the piles,” Umahi said.
The Minister said that some of the piles have detached from the pile caps, pointing out that the problem is aggravated due to illegal mining of sand over the years among other issues.
“The Third Mainland bridge has a number of problems. First is the the top deck, over the years, the maintenance of the top deck was by adding asphalt on top, so we now created a super elevation and a lot of potholes due to failures of this asphalt leading to a lot of accidents. So, when we came on board, what we did was to clean out all the entire layed asphalts, and that gave the bridge a relief,” he said.
While thanking President Ahmed Bola Tinubu for granting them the intervention fund to carry out the repairs on the bridges, he said, “The President has come to correct the ills of this country. And because he’s determined to correct it, everybody wants this thing to be done overnight.”
He said these bridges were not touched by past administrations in the past 53 to 60 years.
