The Lagos State government and the Nigerian Navy have again ordered truck drivers to vacate bridges and major roads as government battles the intractable traffic gridlock as trucks wait to access the Apapa port in Lagos.
The long, snaky lines of all sorts of trucks on the Jibowu bridge, through the Funsho Williams Avenue, to Costain bridge and the Ijora Causeway, and the access road leading to the Apapa port illustrate the complexity of what the traffic in that axis of the Lagos metropolis has become.
The congestion stretches many metres with some trucks heading to the Apapa ports to freight consignments stuck on the queue for as many as four days before they can access the facility.
That is the picture from the Western Avenue-Ijora-Apapa end. The situation from the Mile 2-Tin-Can port-Apapa ports axis is not different with scores of trucks stuck in the traffic snarl from the Berger area, to the dilapidated expressway in front of the Tin-Can port and to the Apapa ports. From both ends, it can take commercial buses and private cars virtually half the day to beat the traffic jam to get to Apapa ports as they manoeuvre through the lone lane left for them to use. Read more