By Dipo Olowookere
The removal of six roundabouts along the Lekki-Epe Expressway has saved residents and motorists in the corridor about N87 billion yearly, a report of the Junction Improvement Works carried out by a construction giant, Planet Projects Limited, has revealed.
The six roundabouts removed were at Ikate, Chisco, Jakande, Igbo Efon, Chevron and Victoria Garden City (VGC).
The Lekki-Epe road, as at the time it was reconstructed, was designed to accommodate about 30,000 vehicles per day, but the vehicular movement along the axis had since increased to over 50,000 daily, thus necessitating plans to mitigate the impact on traffic.
The traffic situation in the area was further worsened by the delays occasioned by the humongous roundabouts along the corridor with average size of about 2,800sqm which is four plots of land.
As part of the junction improvement works and traffic system management of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration designed to enhance free flow of traffic, the State Government had commissioned the removal of the roundabouts with the view to freeing up more space for traffic.
The report of the surveys carried out by Planet Projects after the completion of the project showed that the removal of the roundabouts had saved residents about N240million daily and N87billion yearly based on journey time and fuel saving analysis.
Giving details, the firm in the report said: “Average travel time from the Abraham Adesanya to Lekki Admiralty Tollgate was about 2hours characterized by huge delays especially at the roundabouts.
“This unpalatable and unacceptable traffic situation prompted Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, the Governor of Lagos State to commission the removal of the roundabouts under the Junction Improvement Works (JIW) project.
“The project involves detailed traffic surveys (Manual Classified Count, Turning Movement Count, Journey Time and Delay survey, e.t.c), Conceptual, Detailed Engineering Designs and Construction executed by Planet Projects Limited (PPL).
“Pre and Post JIW traffic surveys carried out by PPL shows that journey time between Abraham Adesanya and Lekki Admiralty Tollgate has reduced drastically from 2hours to about 36minutes, thus, saving Lekki – Ajah residents (with 60,487 Average Daily Traffic) about N240million daily and N87billion yearly based on journey time and fuel savings analysis,” the report highlighted.
The affected roundabouts were replaced with traffic lights, expansion of the roads and provision of dedicated turning lanes as well as additional lay-bys.
