The federal government has signalled that additional structures and settlements along the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway corridor face demolition, as authorities intensify efforts to address persistent flooding threatening the project and nearby communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, made the announcement during a hands-on inspection of Section One of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, conducted to evaluate the environmental damage caused by recent flooding on communities adjacent to the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Umahi framed the upcoming demolitions as a necessary step toward reducing congestion in flood-vulnerable zones, restoring natural water flow, and shielding critical national infrastructure from the destructive effects of seasonal rainfall. He stressed that future physical development along the corridor must strictly comply with Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking to journalists at the inspection site, the minister attributed widespread flooding across parts of Lagos to a combination of deteriorating drainage infrastructure, blocked drainage channels choked with refuse, and the consistent failure by estate developers, beachfront operators, and residential community builders to embed ESIA requirements into their planning and construction processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Umahi firmly rejected suggestions circulating in public commentary that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway itself is responsible for the flooding that has affected surrounding neighbourhoods. He insisted that the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment was subjected to international scrutiny before construction commenced and that the highway meets globally recognised engineering and construction standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He pointed specifically to the Alpha Beach axis and other affected parts of Lagos, arguing that inadequate flood-control provisions at the approval and development stages of several nearby estates have materially worsened the flooding problem over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Inadequate consideration of ESIA requirements in urban development has contributed significantly to the recurring flooding challenges we are witnessing,” Umahi said, directing the Lagos State Government, the Federal Ministry of Environment, and relevant drainage agencies to accelerate work on strengthening drainage infrastructure across the corridor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Umahi provided a technical defence of the highway’s design, explaining that the road was deliberately elevated above sea level specifically to enhance its resilience to flooding. He said the elevation specifications were derived from comprehensive environmental modelling conducted as part of the project’s pre-construction assessments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also credited President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s broader national directive on flood control with limiting the human and economic toll that recent rainfall would otherwise have caused in Lagos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A joint technical assessment between the federal and Lagos State governments was announced to identify further drainage improvements along the highway corridor \u2014 a move that signals continued institutional focus on the flooding problem even as demolitions proceed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Managing Director of Hitech Construction Company, Dany Abboud, confirmed that his firm had already begun clearing manholes, culverts, and drainage channels along the project corridor in response to the flooding. Abboud pledged that Hitech would sustain its mitigation programme, systematically removing blockages to support effective water drainage around the highway alignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The inspection was attended by members of the Senate Committee on Works, officials from the Lagos State Ministry of Environment, and members of the Environmental Impact Assessment team \u2014 a broad assembly that underlined the political and technical weight attached to the flooding situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Umahi used the occasion to reiterate his appeal to Lagos residents to stop disposing of refuse in drainage channels, warning that continued waste dumping would undermine every other intervention the government and contractor put in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Separately, the engineer’s representative, Iwande Ali, provided an update on the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway, reporting that more than 34 kilometres of reinforced concrete pavement had been completed on Section Three. Ali said extensive edge works and site clearance had also been carried out, and that bridge and culvert construction accounted for the remaining unfinished pavement sections. He gave the minister assurances that the project remained broadly on schedule notwithstanding ongoing engineering challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minister of State for Works, Barrister Bello Muhammad Goronyo, added that construction is active across all six sections of the 1,068-kilometre Badagry-Sokoto Highway, with substantial work recorded along the route.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The federal government has signalled that additional structures and settlements along the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway corridor face demolition, as authorities intensify efforts to address persistent flooding threatening the project and nearby communities. Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, made the announcement during a hands-on inspection of Section One of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, conducted to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":6994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[327],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6995,"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6993\/revisions\/6995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}