After being closed down for more than a year, the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing on Wednesday re-opened the 40-year-old Apapa/Leventis Bridge in Lagos State to traffic.

The bridge was closed for emergency repairs in August 2016 after a portion of its deck damaged by fire caved in, forcing some of the reinforcement rods on top of the bridge’s centre to be exposed.

It was however re-opened to light traffic after the emergency repairs and later shut in 2017. The permanent repairs began in 2018 after Julius Berger, the contractor on the project imported some materials to aid the repairs.

Performing the tape cutting ceremony to open the bridge which links Nigeria’s premier port to both the Lagos Mainland and Island, the South-West Directorof Highways, Mr. Funsho Adebiyi said that the opening would ease the traffic gridlock on the Apapa axis.

“It is my pleasure to open this bridge in the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Today we are having a new bridge as well as a new access road. So, hopefully gridlock will end here,” Adebiyi said.

He added that the Federal Government was going to take drastic action against all forms of abuses that would cause damage to all bridges in the state.