The Second Niger Bridge is actually divided into four distinct components. There is the Asaba road section, the Toll Plaza Section, the bridge section and lastly the Onitsha road section. The bridge section is 1.59 km in length. The toll plaza is 1.5 km in length, the Asaba road section is 2.8km and the Onitsha road section is 7km, totaling 9.8 km for the phase 1 access routes. There will be six lanes of traffic (3X3). The road will be tolled and there is a 25 year concessionaire term, which will be managed by a consortium comprised of NSIA, NMIC and Julius Berger. They will also be partnering with FMW Nigeria. The bridge has a lifespan of 50-60 years. This is an average design life-span. Which means that maintenance costs for this bridge, beyond the design period will be quite high. Furthermore the concessionaire period is 25 years, which means that financing the maintenance of this bridge, will be a subject for decades to come. It should be noted, that even its sister bridge - the Niger Bridge is in dire need of maintenance.
An interesting challenge that this bridge faces is that beyond phase 1 (which includes the construction of the bridge and right of way), there will need to be additional access ways/connecting roads built in phase 2. This problem could have been avoided if the 2nd Niger bridge alignment was beside the existing Niger Bridge and the existing access ways were simply expanded. Approximately 30 kilometres of access roads will need to be built for the ongoing project. The benefit however is that the Onitsha - Owerri expressway will avoid a bottleneck, which would have been the case had all the volumes of traffic been concentrated in one point. Another benefit is that by distancing both bridges, pressures on the urban centres will be reduced and there will be a logical toll-free alternative route.
Shown at the top of the page is what appears to be piling works by Julius Berger, other construction images that we have seen also shows some ongoing work on the ROW (right of way). More on the design specifications will be discussed in Part 2 of this entry.
Written by T.Adeniyi for BBB.
Information Sourced from NSIA
An interesting challenge that this bridge faces is that beyond phase 1 (which includes the construction of the bridge and right of way), there will need to be additional access ways/connecting roads built in phase 2. This problem could have been avoided if the 2nd Niger bridge alignment was beside the existing Niger Bridge and the existing access ways were simply expanded. Approximately 30 kilometres of access roads will need to be built for the ongoing project. The benefit however is that the Onitsha - Owerri expressway will avoid a bottleneck, which would have been the case had all the volumes of traffic been concentrated in one point. Another benefit is that by distancing both bridges, pressures on the urban centres will be reduced and there will be a logical toll-free alternative route.
Shown at the top of the page is what appears to be piling works by Julius Berger, other construction images that we have seen also shows some ongoing work on the ROW (right of way). More on the design specifications will be discussed in Part 2 of this entry.
Written by T.Adeniyi for BBB.
Information Sourced from NSIA