Second Niger Bridge Tests Illumination

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.