After Six Months: FG reopens damaged Kano multi billion naira bridge to motorists

The Federal Government has reopened the closed part of the Ado Bayero bridge in Kano after completion of repairs.

SOLACEBASE reports that the Ado Bayero bridge popularly called Gadar Lado, inaugurated by President Goodluck Jonathan on 22nd Marc, 2015, was closed in July, 2022 over failure of part of the bridge.

Speaking to journalists, in Kano, on the opening of the bridge, on Friday,  Minister of State Works and Housing, Alhaji Umar Ibrahim El-Yakub, said the failure of part of the bridge with a deep pot hole was due to heavy trucks plying the bridge which was a contravention of the type of vehicles allowed to make use of the road.

‘’The bridge was not designed for heavy vehicles such as trucks to ply the bridge, however, many trucks violated the order to the extent that a heavy truck got damaged on the bridge and the driver even had the cause to jerk it up on the bridge for repairs,’’ the minister said.

‘’Initially the motorists plying the bridge thought it was a slight repairs but it was when we started repairing that we discovered that the initial damage that we thought was only 10 meters was later discovered to be up to 30 meters. Hence we had to remove most of the initial concrete and put new ones.’’

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The minister attributed the slow pace of work on the bridge before completion and opening to vehicular movement on Friday, was due to the nature of the meticulousness of the engineers to safe guard the lives of the motorists plying the bridge and those under it.

Alhaji Umar Ibrahim El-Yakub said expansion joints of the bridge was also put in place to reinforce the safety.

He noted that apart from the repair on the damaged portion, the stretch of the bridge was completely laid with bitumen.

‘’Initially before the bridge was damaged , there was a barrier that prevented trucks from plying the bridge but some unscrupulous people removed the barriers , however, we have constructed new ones on the bridge.’’

The minister appealed to motorists to exercise patience as the other side of the bridge would be closed also for a week so that asphalt can laid on that side at the same time.