More than two years after construction began, the Minister of Works, David Umahi, has disclosed that the 750-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway has no single comprehensive engineering design and is being planned and costed in separate sections.
Umahi made the admission during an interview on Arise Television on Friday, monitored by our correspondent. He said the project, presented by the Federal Government as one of President Bola Tinubu’s flagship infrastructure programmes, is not covered by one master engineering design.
The disclosure comes amid continuing questions over the highway’s total cost, construction process, environmental approvals and the government’s ability to complete it.
Defending the cost of the first section, the minister said a standard two-lane carriageway would cost about $5.5m per kilometre, or N7.3bn, citing a comparison with a coastal highway project in the neighbouring Republic of Benin.
He, however, rejected the use of an average estimate to calculate the cost of the entire 750-kilometre route, arguing that terrain, bridges and engineering requirements differ from one section to another.
Umahi also said no road project is ultimately built exactly as designed, and maintained that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway does not have a single design covering the whole stretch.
He explained that the project is being handled section by section rather than under one comprehensive master design.
