Some motorists who usually pass through Oba Akran Avenue, Ikeja Lagos, have decried the gridlock that has become a feature of the area.
Many of them on Thursday lamented the slow pace of construction work on Second Gate junction, along the road, which caused the gridlock.
The construction work, which is being undertaken by the Lagos State Ministry of works, is to replace the asphalt on the road with interlocking tiles.
PUNCH Metro observed during a visit to the area on Thursday that the construction was hampering the movement of vehicles on the road.
Although men of the Lagos State Transport Management Agency were in large numbers controlling traffic, it had little effect on the hold-up caused by the work.
A motorist, Dr. Wale Adeleke, who stated that he had been on the road for two hours, said the pace of work on the road was slow.
He said, “I have been here for almost two hours now. The construction work is too slow. This is just maintenance work that shouldn’t be more than 48 hours. This is a major road and they need to hasten things up.” He said.
Another road user, who identified himself simply as Nurudeen, said he was on his way to the Agege area of the state, claimed that he had spent over two hours on the road.
Some other motorists who were also stuck in traffic said they were not aware of the main cause of the traffic.
Nwosu, who was on his way to Adeniyi Jones from the airport regretted plying the route, saying that he would have preferred to take an alternative route.
“If I had known that the traffic here would be this heavy, I would have taken an alternative route. I left the airport at 4pm, look at the time now, it is almost two hours.” He said.
One of the engineers on ground, Olarenwaju Kazeem, explained that the work would have been completed but for the rains. He explained that the purpose for the construction was to make the road more durable. He blamed the traffic situation on people’s unwillingness to ply unfamiliar alternative routes.
He said, “There are alternative routes that people can take to avoid this place. For instance, there is a route at Adeniyi Jones leading to Ogba, but people are used to this road.”
A LASTMA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, explained that adequate measures had been taken to avoid the present situation, including giving out information on the radio.
“As you can see, we are here in large number to control traffic. Also, we have been advising people on the radio to make use of alternative routes. I think the situation could have been worse,” he said.
