Road users renew calls on FG to fix Apapa /Tin Can Island Port Access Road

Some road users in Lagos on Friday renewed appeals to the Federal Government to repair the Apapa/Tin Can Island Port Access road, which is again in terrible condition. The road users in interviews told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the bad state of the road caused gridlock, avoidable accidents and was affecting economic activities in the area.
A NAN correspondent who took a trip on the highway on Friday reported that craters were at various portions of the road between the Tin Can Island first and second gates. NAN observed that the craters which were both on the Oshodi and Apapa-bound carriageways, caused slow movement of articulated vehicles on the road, causing gridlock. The traffic congestion was worsened by tankers parking indiscriminately on both carriageways from the Tin Can Island second gate to as far as Otto Wharf bus stop area on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway. NAN further reports that craters are emerging around Coconut, Warehouse, Westminister and Trinity bus stop areas on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway. NAN also observed that commercial buses in a bid to avoid the bad portions of the Tin Can Island road, picked and dropped passengers at Coconut bus stop. A commercial bus driver, Mr Felix Chukwu, told NAN that government had ignored the bad road, causing road users to devise measures to cope with the situation. “We (commercial bus drivers) do not have a choice, we must eat so we have to manage the road, since government has abandoned it. “Tankers have blocked the road, so we take one way from Berger under-bridge when going to Apapa from Oshodi. “We discharge passengers at Coconut and continue from there back to Oshodi because we cannot go through that Tin Can Island Road,’’ he said. A chandler, Mrs Anastasia Oyeyemi, appealed to government to repair the road to check revenue loss. “People avoid Apapa because of this road and those of us who have businesses at the ports waste a lot of time trying to get there because of the bad road. “Containers are falling here everyday because of the gullies, all of these accidents and the stress can be avoided,” she said. A commercial motorcycle operator, Malam Ahmed Gulube, told NAN that the gullies were easier to navigate with the temporary seizure of rainfall. “We are making more money from passengers because small vehicles cannot pass here, but we usually pray against rain. “Flood on these craters is usually horror for us,” he said. A business woman, Mrs Ashake Oluri and a lecturer in Geology, Mr Gilbert David, also appealed to government to respond to public outcry and repair the highway. (NAN)