The Lagos State Public Works Corporation (LSPWC) on Tuesday said it was targeting the rehabilitation of 250 kilometres of roads across the state in 2021 in addition to the 297 it repaired between 2019 and 2020.
Mr Ganiu Lawal, Assistant Director, Public Affairs of the LSPWC said the massive rehabilitation drive was to meet up with the state government’s vision of zero potholes and gridlock.
Lawal said that pieces and patches of cumulative work done across the state when put together in 2020 was a total of 90 kilometres, adding that stretches worked upon were usually added to get a total.
“We were able to finish about 297 roads since we started, and for last year we covered a total of about 90 kilometres of roads that is the cumulation of what we have done.
“And this year, the governor has given us directive that we must up our game and finish about 250 kilometres. That is our target for this year, to do 250 kilometres of road maintenance and rehabilitation.
“And we have started well, if you go to Olojo Drive, Olojo Alaba area now, it is a major road and we have started work on it.
“The old Ota Road and so many roads as you see on our schedule on a daily basis, we are there working,” he said.
He listed major roads done in 2020 across the five divisions of the state to include Tolu Osagun, Oredun, Baale Roads in Ajeromi Ifelodum Local Council Development Area.
“We are constantly on Iju Road because it is a long stretch of road that connects Lagos to other places and Ogun,” he said.
He said that apart from ongoing major contracts on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, the LSPWC team worked on Ajara Toba and Ajara Dokun in 2020 and would soon embark on several inner roads rehabilitation there in 2021.
He also gave a long list of roads and drains fixed in Alimosho, Ikorodu and Badagry Local Government Areas, saying that its workmen always had a daily work schedule they usually set out to meet working overnight in some cases.
Lawal, however, lamented the unlawful activities of social miscreants popularly referred to as “Area Boys”, who slowed down night rehabilitation works because their presence instilled fears in the construction workers.
“We prefer working in the night in densely populated areas where the volume of traffic is high, so that when we work in the night, there is less distraction and disruption of our operations but sometimes our people are attacked by hoodlums that most times we have to involve the security agencies and all that, but it creates fear in the minds of those working and it reduces the amount of performance.
“If there was an incidence, we will want to be careful before we move in there the next day and that affects the speed of delivery.
“Sometimes the hoodlums attack our staff, take their phones and money but we have been surmounting them,” he said.
He said that the corporation was improving its capacity to fast-track rehabilitation works ahead of the rainy season, adding that, it would continue working through all seasons of the year.
He lamented the massive destruction, vandalism and theft at the corporation’s head office buildings, assets and equipment in Ojodu during the #EndSARS protests in Lagos.
(NAN)