IMPORTANT NOTICE

In real estate terms “penny wise, pound foolish” is the man who rents a house far away from town because of its low rent and then spends much more than he would have spent renting a house in town, on transport fares. So on this basis many wise men may consider buying property in the Mowe/Ofada axis as a bad investment. There has been reported bad press on the state of the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway whish links the axis to the commercial capital with stories of travellers having to spend might because of traffic. Apart from the horrible traffic due to religious activities, the Lagos Ibadan Expressway is in a bad state of repair in certain areas and there is the menace of tanker drivers as well as security concerns. However, owing or investing in real estate is a long term proposition and it is important to look at what are the prospects for improvements in transportation infrastructure in the future.

Well, there are plans for a major makeover for Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.

Click image to enlarge

The Bi-Courtney Consortium has been awarded the contract to upgrade the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway to international standard with full control of access.

The concessionaire (Bi-Courtney) is expected to modernise the highway by providing services and facilities to improve safety and security of motorists such as vehicular parking areas for heavy duty vehicles; rest areas with eateries and conveniences; emergency communications equipment and clinics and emergency ambulances.

Other facilities to be provided by the consortium are electronic traffic control and enforcement measures; highway lighting between 7pm and 6am through the installation of a gas-fired plant; overhead pedestrian bridges at designated locations; modern toll points with electronic tolling system; and modern road signs and lane markings.

The scope of work includes the full reconstruction of the existing carriageways from Lagos to Ibadan; the provision of two additional lanes in each direction of travel between Lagos and Sagamu interchange/junction, making it four lanes in each direction of travel; the provision of associated facilities for the security and welfare of road users, free flow of traffic. Upon completion, the project will enter the operations/maintenance stage when the road will be fully maintained to a predetermined level of service.

All this of course is not free and the consortium is to collect tolls on the road. If you have an aversion to these tolls, the Lagos State Government is planning two mono rail lines from Mowe Ibafo axis. The Purple line which is from the Redeemed Camp will take passengers all the way to Ojo with stops at Agege, Iyana Ipaja, Igando, and LASU before terminating at Ojo.  There is also the Orange line which originates at Redeem Camp, tracks the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway before its first stop at Jibowu, with Yaba, Ebute Metta junction and Iddo as the other stops before Marina. 

Presently, from Mowe to Marina without traffic will take about 40minutes. When these projects are completed, expect travel times to drop to as low as 15minutes.