JUST IN: Julius Berger hands over Second Niger Bridge to FG

The Federal Government has taken delivery of the second Niger bridge from the contractor, Julius Berger, seven months after it was inaugurated by the previous administration.

The Minister of Works, Mr David Umahi, while addressing journalists shortly after he was conducted around the road and the facilities on Sunday by the Managing Director of Julius Berger, Dr Lars Richter, said that he was satisfied with the level of work done.

Umahi, while commending the previous and present administration for doing quite a lot to bring the work to fruition, described the job as “impeccable, very beautiful, and well completed.”

According to him, we have a light issue, and we’ve put things together on how to permanently have light, especially at night.

“What we have agreed to do is deploy a solar solution in the coming weeks so that every night we don’t have to run diesel.

“The roads are going to be completed when we have completed the two interchanges; one is taking us off from Asaba town to cut off the traffic, and the other is going to be done by Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) Ltd. to avoid Onitsha town and take you straight to Obosi.

“President Ahmed Tinubu is very committed to the project, and we are going to acquire more so that we can build service stations, filling stations, restaurants, supermarkets, and other facilities as we see in the Western world.

“We are determined to do that; the need to do this with the interchanges is going to be a brilliant one so that over the years we can have a beautiful and maintained road,” he said.

The minister further assured security with the bridge by providing Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras and some security personnel so that one could get security assistance within five minutes.

Earlier, the Managing Director of Julius Berger, Dr Lars Richter, said that the event was a technical handover after the project was inaugurated by the former administration.

Richter said that work was completed on time, and Julius Berger delivered the highest quality of work.

Also speaking, the Director Bridges Design and Construction, South, Federal Ministry of Works, Mr Bede Obioha, tasked the residents around the second Niger bridge to help secure the already installed facilities and those that are yet to be installed.

Bede commended the staff of his ministry and the contractors for a job well done and urged the road users and the residents to abide by the rules of the road. (NAN)