By Olasunkanmi Akoni
The Lagos State Government has ordered all estates and residential areas operating gated streets particularly on the Lekki-Ajah axis to ensure that such gates and barriers are opened between the hours of 5.am to 11pm on daily basis in accordance with guidelines.
Meanwhile, the state government has completed the rehabilitation of a critical 9-kilometre stretch of the Lekki–Ajah Road from Chevron to Admiralty (Lagos-bound) in just 27 days, beating the projected 41-day timeline.
Commissioner for Transportation, Oluwaseun Osiyemi, in the company of the Special Adviser to the Governor, Office of Infrastructure, Engr. Olufemi Daramola gave the order on Wednesday, while addressing Journalists, during an inspection tour of the ongoing rehabilitation works on sections 2 and 3 of the 20 kilometres, Eti-Osa/Lekki-Ajah, Epe Expressway, ahead of the kick-off of the second phase, tomorrow.
Recall that Lagos State had commenced the first phase of rescheduled rehabilitation works on sections 2 and 3 of the 20 kilometres, Eti-Osa/Lekki/Epe Expressway, on January 25, for a period of two months each.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had earlier, in 2025, ordered the suspension of the rehabilitation works scheduled to commence last year, December 3, following public outcry over chaotic traffic that greeted the initial partial closure of the road for the project.
The affected areas of rehabilitation span from Admiralty Way Junction to the Jubilee Bridge section (Ajah) in the Eti-Osa Local Government Area.
The commissioner stated that the ministry observed during the first phase of construction the installation of unauthorised gates, particularly in the Lekki axis. Many of the gates, he said, were erected without the necessary approvals from the ministry.
He noted that the development created significant challenges to efforts to provide alternative routes for motorists, hindering traffic flow, limiting emergency response access, and compromising overall public safety.
Osiyemi, who reiterated that all gates and barriers installed without prior authorisation from the state government are illegal, directed that they should be removed.
He warned that failure to comply will result in enforcement actions, including removal and penalties in line with existing regulations.
Osiyemi stressed that gates or barriers on public roads must remain fully open for public use from 5:00 AM to 11:00 PM daily to ensure smooth traffic flow and interconnectivity, warning that failure to comply will attract severe sanctions.
Rehabs
Meanwhile, while commending Lagos residents for the cooperation so far on the project, the commissioner revealed that traffic management strategies have been painstakingly conceptualised and executed in well-structured phases.
He urged all road users to continue to exercise patience, demonstrate civic responsibility, comply strictly with traffic regulations and cooperate fully with traffic personnel on duty, stressing the need for a collective discipline and cooperation for the success of the rehabilitation exercise and the effectiveness of the traffic management measures in place.
Osiyemi specifically identified the Coastal Road from Ogombo through Abraham Adesanya as a viable and recommended alternative during the rehabilitation phase.
Travel advisory
The commissioner said, “The traffic management plan for the second phase of the rehabilitation will commence tonight, February 25.
“We’re going to be doing counter-flowing, which means we divert vehicles to the other side from the stretch of this admiralty all the way to Marwa.
“They will now go back in Marwa, and during the peak period, as we did at the other time as well, those going towards the peak will take two of the three lanes, and those off-peak will take one and vice versa.
“We will do that, and we’ve actually come to check the intersections to ensure that we have enough room, the turning radius that both our public transportation and also the trailers and cars can actually ply, so that we don’t have issues of bottlenecks and all of whatnot.
“Some of the major things I would like to discuss would be, one, we would like to encourage the Lagosians to please use alternative routes.
“A lot of people should please try and use the Oniru, inside the Oniru and come out of Marwa to avoid this stretch for now.
“And for people who live in Lekki, if you do not have any plans of going to this side of the road, please avoid it.
“But if you need to get to enter Marwa, you can use Rotimi Etti inside Lekki and come out of Marwa. So, the bottom line is we need our people to please abide by the rules, listen to our traffic officers, and, for the alternative routes we are putting out, please try to comply.
“But now we have a lot of traffic officers and security personnel on that stretch, so we’ve gotten it to some good level of sanity.
But we are still appealing to negotiations. Let’s use these alternative routes very well and responsibly.
“For the inner roads that we’ll be taking, we don’t expect people to park on the road.
“In line with the traffic management plan for the projects, rehabilitation works will be carried out intersection by intersection, rather than across the entire corridor at once and will also be done both day and night to cover more ground within the project timeline.
“We can assure that improved traffic frameworks, personnel deployment, and real-time monitoring will continue as work progresses.”
Also, Daramola stated that the first-phase scope of work included both carriageways, which is being carried out in collaboration with the transportation ministry.
He confirmed that the broader 28km corridor (Lekki–Ajah Bridge to Admiralty, both carriageways) is being delivered in phases, with works on the Epe-bound carriageway set to commence later.
Daromola expressed satisfaction with the level of work done so far, saying it conforms to international standards.
“The second phase will be a 24-hour construction work, all things being equal,” he assured.
The post Lekki-Ajah Exp rehabs: Lagos warns against unapproved gated streets appeared first on Vanguard News.
