Julius Berger has switched on the streetlights on the Second Niger Bridge to test the illumination.

The bridge will be inaugurated in December and opened to traffic.

The Second Niger Bridge is a key national infrastructure, with immense socio-economic benefits for the contiguous states and indeed the entire nation.

Upon completion, the bridge will ease traffic flow, improve road safety, and create greater opportunities for local residents by advancing the commercial viability of the immediate area and regenerating economic life.

The scope of works include the construction of 1.6 km long bridge, 10.3 km Highway, Owerri interchange and a toll station.

The Second Niger Bridge crosses the Niger between the cities of Asaba in the west and Onitsha in the east.

When completed, it will be the last bridge over the Niger River before it branches into its delta arms.

History

The first Niger Bridge, linking Onitsha and Asaba, was completed in 1965 and built by the French construction company, Dumez.

The Second Niger Bridge was first proposed during the 1958/69 political campaign by then candidate Shehu Francis, pastor of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN).

In 1987, after warning about the state of the existing River Niger Bridge by the then Minister for Works and Housing Abubakar Umar, General Ibrahim Babangida challenged the local engineers to design The Second Niger Bridge, rising to the challenge.

The Nigerian Society of Engineers called NSE Prems Limited, which subsequently delivered a masterplan. The addition of east–west railway line to the project, unfortunately the turmoil that precipitated the end of Babangida’s administration stalled the plan.

Under the subsequent military governments, the projects received little attention. Upon the return to civilian rule, President Olusegun Obasanjo promised to deliver a second Niger River bridge.

However, his administration did not carry out any major activity on the project until five days before he handed over to the then incoming administration of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, when Obasanjo flagged off the project in Asaba.

The incoming administration effectively inherited a ₦58.6 billion proposed cost for a six lane, 1.8 km tolled bridge, which was to be completed in three-and-half years.

The bridge was to be financed under a public private partnership (PPP) with 60 per cent of the funding coming from the contractor, Gitto Group; 20 per cent from the Federal Government of Nigeria, and 10 per cent from the Anambra and Delta State Governments. Unfortunately the subsequent death of President Yar’adua marred the progress of the project.

However, in August 2012, the Federal Executive Council under Jonathan’s administration, approved a contract worth ₦325 million for the final planning and design of the bridge.

During the 2011 Nigerian general election campaign period, Jonathan has promised that if elected, he would deliver the project before the end of his term in 2015. At an Onitsha town hall meeting on August 30, 2012, he promised to go into exile if he did not deliver on the project by 2015.

The rigmarole continued under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, who first cancelled the earlier contract in August 2015.

However, construction of the new bridge began on September 1, 2018. The bridge spans from Asaba in Delta State to Ozubulu, Ogbaru and other communities in Anambra State.

Niger River

The Niger is the third longest river in Africa after the Nile and the Congo. It moves 7,000 Cubic meter per second water at Onitsha, which is more than a hundred times as much as the Thames in London and almost three times as much as the Missouri river before reaching St. Louis.

The Niger also separates Nigeria’s populous southwest from the oil-rich southeast. The current only bridge at Onitsha, a 1960s steel truss structure with two lanes, is overloaded, due in no small part to the fact that it must accommodate flying traders, handcart drivers, cargo-carrying people and the occasional herd of goats in addition to (and between) cars.

The phrase “Second Niger Bridge”, which has been used as an established term in Nigerian politics since the 1980s, is misleading.

In fact, there are already seven major bridges over the Niger in Nigeria alone (not to mention in countries like Niger or Benin).

Financing

Financing was achieved with a private-public mixed financing (PPP), for which a toll will be charged to the users of the bridge. Julius Berger Nigeria PLC, was in charge of the project.

The project also involves the construction of 3.3km Approach road on the Asaba side and 7.0km approach road on the Onitsha side of the main bridge, scheduled for completion in October 2022, toll plaza at CH25+700 which consists of eight lanes in each direction, scheduled for completion in October 2022, and site clearing of the Right of Way including the removal of all bush, trees and shrubs.

The project is expected to be completed, December 2022.

Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, says the Araromi Seaside in Igbokoda, Ilaje Local Government area (LGA) would attract global attention to the state as a tourist centre.

Akeredolu, who said this in Akure, the state capital noted that the government had concluded arrangements to declare the Seaside a Tourism Zone.

He said that the huge potentials of the State in tourism would no longer be left untapped, adding that the declaration would attract global attention to the state.

Akeredolu said that the development would be in partnership with La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort Ltd.

He also said that it would replicate the success stories of Tourism, particularly in Dubai, in the Sunshine State.

Otunba Wanle Akinboboye, Chairman, La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort Ltd., said that the declaration would create jobs and drive revenue generation in the state.

Akinboboye said the declaration would provide a platform for the present and future generation to enjoy tourism to the fullest.

He said the natural tourist endowment of Sunshine State would be explored for the benefits of not only Nigerians, but the global community for the economic prosperity of the state

“The entire Dubai has a total of 70 kilometers of beachfront; they welcome over 15.9 million visitors every year.

“Just imagine if they spend a thousand dollars, multiply by 15.9 million people, that is what Mr Governor wants to replicate, to bring the entire world here,” he said.

Akinboboye said it would attract huge employment opportunities, adding that the state had several attractions of acquatic zone.

“We have the richest ocean because of limited operations of trollers, so our sea is extremely rich with different species of fish, prawns and the entire tourism activity that we believe very strongly will not only attract just Nigerians, but Africans in Diaspora.

“A declaration like this will attract the world to that area for business opportunities. With this declaration, we in the state would have built a homogenous platform for tommorow’s people.

“The platform we are standing on today was built by yesterday’s people. Mr Governor has begun the process of the platform for tomorrow’s people,” he said.

Borisov Arena is a football-specific stadium in Barysaw, Belarus and is the home stadium of FC BATE Borisov and the Belarus national football team.

As every football team requires new stadium to play the matches with other teams, FC Bate in Borisov as well, which is the reigning champions of the Belorussian Premier League, has been discussing about a new stadium.

Even though at first it was only a fans’ dream, slowly but surely it became a reality.

The idea for the stadium takes into account the natural advantages as well as the surroundings of it.

The plan was to make intervention on the surrounding, but the trees around not to be touched.

The stadium will eventually be built in form a dome, where it forms a unified rounded dome, which gives an impression of a single enclosed object.

The impression therefore, continues with the skin of the dome, which shows something like a fragile stretched perforated textile, pulled over the stadium skeleton.

The stadium provides good acoustics and encourages an extrovert atmosphere from the players and the fans alike during the game.

Construction started at the end of 2010, and was finished in 2014, when it officially opened the same year. In total, the official capacity is 13,126 people.

The seats of the stadium are arranged around the playing field in rows of 17 along the sides and rows of 27-28 along the short sides.

The upper west gallery is reserved for press cabins while the east is reserved for the VIP guests with 250 seats and bar with entertainment spaces.

What is interesting is the roof of the stadium (the sides of it), which is covered with metal sheets from the outside and with a special material that is letting light in from special lanterns hidden inside the roof.

The final aspect of the arena is recognizable image around the world with the soft greenery that surrounds it.

Any football fans would really enjoy in this stadium which definitely feels like you are at home, except you are surrounded with so many people, who love and enjoy the sport!

Five massive tree ferns have made an “epic journey” from Edinburgh to the south-west tip of Scotland.

The heaviest of the 20ft (7m) tall plants weighed in at 350kg (770lbs).

The Dicksonia antartica tree ferns have been growing for nearly 150 years in glasshouses at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE).

Due to refurbishment work, they have been moved to a new outdoor home 145 miles away at Logan Botanic Garden near Stranraer.

The complex operation took place as part of a project to restore the historic glasshouses in Edinburgh.

The tree ferns were too tall to dig up and move easily so the team involved cut the “trunks” – which are actually a mass of roots – and later replanted them which will allow them to regenerate in their new location.

Prior to being transferred, the two-metre long fronds at the top of each fern were removed then the top four metres of each “trunk” were carefully taken out and prepared for their long journey.

At the end, they were replanted – outside for the first time in their lives.

Sadie Barber, research collections and project manager at RBGE, said it had not been easy to come up with an answer to how to move the plants.

“To enable the glasshouse restoration, we are now in the process of transplanting plants from our ferns and fossils glasshouse for safekeeping,” she said.

“However, specimens such as Dicksonia antarctica and Thyrsopteris elegans are massive and grow tightly together along narrow, winding paths.

“Finding solutions to lifting and moving them safely in such a confined space has been quite a challenge.”