The Nigerian government has ordered immediate partial closure of one full carriageway of the Eko Bridge in Lagos, on Sunday, May 10, 2026.
The emergency action follows the breaking of five supporting piles, making the section highly unstable.
The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi made this known in Lagos during the site handover of the Carter Bridge to China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation.
“By the midnight of this coming Sunday, that full carriageway must be closed. The other carriageway will be working.
” I am directing the director of bridges and the controller of works in Lagos to liaise with Lagos State Government and mount campaign of awareness and see if we can get an alternative route,” Umahi said.
The Minister said the decision became necessary to safeguard lives and prevent further deterioration of the damaged section of the bridge, stressing that the government would not compromise public safety.
“We will not allow people to endanger their lives. We are responsible administration, and it is a problem not caused by us but a challenge before us.
“The best solution is that we are going to be lifting a whole span of the affected section,” Umahi said.
According to him, the pier and the pie cap would be exposed.
Repair procedures
“The solutions will now be as follows: On the section that have been cut off, there will be piling.
“We are going to do additional piling around the pie cap and cast a new pie cap and then strengthen the pie cap and replace the damaged piles.
“Before we do this, we are commissioning Buildwell (the contractor) and divers to do a thorough investigation of what and what are affected so that we can incorporate them in our final design,” he explained.
Umahi directed that it should be completed within 10 days.
” I want to apologise to Lagosians. We are solving problems we didn’t create.
“When we came on board, some sections of Eko Bridge were totally burned down because people were staying under the bridge selling chemicals and all sorts of wares, and they put fire, and it was burnt down.
“Buildwell company was already contracted before we came on board, but funding stopped progress of that project until the present government came and gave it a very serious push,” he said.
Umahi gave the assurance that the Federal Government would also take immediate action on the Third Mainland Bridge but would not demolish it.
The Minister of Works said “We have invited an external expert who will reconfirm about six investigation already done, and that is ongoing now.
“He is going to design how we are going to strengthen the pies that are deteriorated, pies that have been removed from the pie caps, and then we will come up with a cost on how to repair the Third Mainland Bridge,” he explained.
The Works Minister called on Nigerians to appreciate infrastructure development and other efforts of the Nigerian government.
