At last, the Ibadan-Oyo segment of the Ibadan-Ilorin four-lane highway (Route A1) corridor has been commissioned.
The project is a 43.25Km dual-carriageway comprising of 13 underpasses, 12 numbers of bridges (seven of which are dual and 5 were single), 29 numbers of reinforced concrete pipe culverts and 51,827m of lined drains.
The Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen who performed the commissioning on Thursday, thanked Oyo state government for its cooperation while the construction lasted.
He assured that the federal government will continue to collaborate with states governments to develop and manage federal roads within their vicinity.
According to him, work is in progress on the remaining part of the highway- the Ogbomoso-Ilorin segment which is ebing constructed at the cost of N47.5 billion.
Mr Onolememen said, the event was very important not only to the South-West zone, but to the entire country. He added that “the road is a section of route A1, one of the four North-South arterial Highways in the sense that Ibadan_Oyo-Ogbomosho-Ilorin road is basically a corridor that links Southern and Northern part of the country, which is very strategic in the movement of goods and services, particularly from Lagos ports and industrial complexes, to the Northern Nigeria”.
The Minister recalled that led the Federal Government decided to embark on the development of the road as a completely new dualisation project using a different alignment to include the large volume of traffic and heavy commercial vehicles that ply on it.
He noted that over the years, the road had deteriorated to a level where maintenance was no longer feasible; having outlived its design life and the road becoming very dangerous to motorists and pedestrian as well as to harness the waste of man-hours on the old road due to traffic bottle necks, particularly as a result of incessant accidents.
Speaking at the event, Governor Isiaka Ajimobi who was represented by the Secretary to the State Governmnet thanked the federal government for delivering on the road.
He however, made a special appeal to the Federal Ministry of Works for the the release of N18,378,141,790.27 as reimbursement to the state as money spent on construction of some federal roads in the state.
Governor Ajimobi also enjoined the Minister of Works to consider granting approval for the state’s application to build extra bridges across the Lagos-Ibadan express road between Ibadan Toll gate and Ojo end of the road which the state is determined to dualise and open up some strategic roads in Ibadan township to ensure free traffic within the capital city and improve the economic well-being of their people.
