The Minister for Works, Senator Dave Umahi, announced on Sunday that the Federal Executive Council has issued a directive banning dredging within a 10km radius of any bridge across the country.
He explained that this decision was made following reports of dredging activities near the Third Mainland Bridge, which Julius Berger warned could cause the bridge to collapse.
“We saw dredging on that Third Mainland Bridge, and Julius Berger had warned that, should this dredging continue, that bridge would collapse,” Umahi stated.
He stressed the crucial need to protect the bridges' structural integrity.
He said: “All the piles in Lagos are being held by skin friction. What it means is that it is sand that is holding them; so, if you remove the sand, the piles will start dangling, and it is very dangerous.”
Umahi, however, called for collaboration with the Royal Navy for patrols on waterways and to prevent illegal sand filling and dredging near bridges.
The minister also announced plans to deploy robotic machines for underwater inspection of bridges nationwide.
He explained that the decision was made to cut costs by reducing the need to hire divers for underwater inspections.
He said: “We are going to locate a robotic kind of machine that will be able to do the diving to allow us to see everything happening under the water in all our bridges.”
According to him, hiring divers to go underwater to check what is happening inside is costing a lot of money.
He added that the Managing Director of HITECH Construction Company, Danny Abboud, would help to "locate that mission and then we would like to buy it".
Umahi, however, declared a "bridge emergency" to assess the condition of bridges, particularly those constructed 53 years ago, across the country.
“We want to declare, I don’t know the word to use, bridge emergency, on our bridges, to know what is happening 53 years after we constructed these bridges, not only in Lagos but nationwide,” he said.
Governor Umahi shared that President Bola Tinubu will officially open several projects beginning on May 1st.
He added that more projects would be inaugurated by December.
“I want Nigerians to have hope in the renewed hope administration as we are building for the future and inherited projects are given adequate attention,” Umahi stated.