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It was a tale of woes and anguish by Lagosians during the first working day of the ongoing repair work on the Third Mainland Bridge.

Despite the mapping out of alternative routes and the mobilisation of hundreds of Road Safety officials (state and federal) as well as the police, many Lagosians yesterday found themselves trapped in the traffic for what looked like endless hours.

“I am concerned about the effect of this repair work on overall productivity and the likely economic loss,” said Folashade Oshun, who lamented that she “was caught in that snarl for about five hours this morning and it wasn’t funny.”

Folashade wondered: “How come the enlightenment campaign was so shoddily handled? One week notice? In decent climes, an enlightenment campaign would have been in the works months before to enable road users develop other route maps.”

Another respondent who gave her name as Hope told Transport & Business Express that she had to abandon her plan of going to Ignanmu from Shomolu in the afternoon when she saw the state of the traffic.

“It was just at standstill,” she said. “There is no need going when I don’t have an idea of when I’ll return.”

Hope queried the wisdom of repairing the bridge during the raining season, observing that the deplorable nature of the designated alternative routes would make traffic nightmares inevitable.

“This is not funny at all,” she said. “This kind of project is usually done during the dry season.”

Transport & Business Express reports that the repair of the famous bridge, which started on Sunday, is scheduled to end in November. The project, which costs a little over a billion naira, is being handled for the federal government by Borini Prono construction company.

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