Badagry road: After our story on how potholes caused tanker fire, CCECC begins filling
The main contractor handling Lot 2 expansion of Lagos-Badagry Expressway, China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), early Wednesday morning rolled out equipment including Caterpillars to begin massive filling of potholes between Alakija/Festac Junction down to LASU Gate.
Business Hilights had on Tuesday published an investigative story (http://businesshilights.com.ng/how-potholes-caused-tanker-fire-wasted-seven-vehicles-on-lagos-badagry-expressway/) after a tour of the accident scene.
Fire had erupted from a petrol tanker that spilled its content around in front of Ojo Military Cantonment along the Lagos-Badagry road on Tuesday morning causing a fire outbreak that destroyed no fewer than seven vehicles.
Investigations by Business Hilights Intelligence Unit (BHIU) team that visited the axis showed that in an effort by the tanker driver to avoid a deep mud-covered pothole, it unknowingly climbed the gutter spilling inflammable contents on the road which suddenly caught fire that resulted in the inferno.
BHIU also gathered that the fire began at about 5am, destroyed the contents of a Mack trailer conveying crates of drinks from Intercontinental Breweries. The fire gutted a station wagon Peugeot car, one Space bus, a Toyota Hummer jeep, a Mazda bus, a container conveying food products from Delta and an empty Mack trailer
In an interview with the President of Auto Spare parts and Machinery Dealers Association (ASPMDA), one of the leading trading groups at the Lagos International trade Fair complex on the highway, Chief Daniel Oforkansi on Tuesday, he said his Transport Monitoring Committee has concluded arrangement to visit the management of CCECC, the construction group handling the road very soon.
He said the visit has become pertinent considering the suffering of traders who trek several kilometers to and fro the market due to bad road caused by potholes on the areas under construction.
According to him, “We are going to CCECC to inform them on the need to always fill potholes on the highway while they continue their work so that people will not continue to suffer untold hardship”.
However, early Wednesday morning, road users were faced with herculean task of getting access to the highway as CCECC has rolled out its caterpillars filling and leveling every observable pothole.
Majority of motorists and commuters were however seen raining abuses on the Chinese engineers monitoring the filling based on the fact that they deliberately allowed the road to develop potholes which led to the loss of properties from the inferno before doing the needful.
