FG to deploy robotic machines for bridge inspection nationwide – Umahi 

Minister of Works, Sen. Dave Umahi, disclosed this on Sunday during a stakeholders’ engagement on Section 2 of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project.

According to him, the decision to introduce robotic diving machines stems from the high cost associated with hiring divers for underwater bridge assessments.

“We are going to locate a robotic kind of machine that will be able to do the diving to allow us to see everything happening under the water in all our bridges,” he stated.

Umahi explained that the current method of hiring divers was no longer sustainable.

“Hiring divers to go under the water to check what is happening inside is causing a lot of money,” he said.

The Minister noted that the Federal Government would be working with the Managing Director of HITECH Construction Company, Mr. Danny Abboud, to source and acquire the robotic machines.

“The Managing Director of HITECH Construction Company, Danny Abboud, would help to ‘locate that mission and then we would like to buy it’,” Umahi stated.

Umahi declared a “bridge emergency” across the country, citing the age of critical infrastructure and the need for urgent assessment of their conditions.

“We want to declare, I don’t know the word to use, bridge emergency, on our bridges, to know what is happening 53 years after we constructed these bridges, not only in Lagos but nationwide,” he said.

“I want Nigerians to have hope in the renewed hope administration as we are building for the future and inherited projects are given adequate attention,” he added.

Addressing concerns about threats to bridge safety, Umahi disclosed that the Federal Executive Council has issued a directive prohibiting dredging activities within a 10km radius of any bridge nationwide.

“We saw dredging on that Third Mainland Bridge, and Julius Berger had warned that, should this dredging continue, that bridge would collapse,” the Minister revealed.

“All the piles in Lagos are being held by skin friction. What it means is that it is sand that is holding them; so, if you remove the sand, the piles will start dangling, and it is very dangerous,” he warned.

To prevent further threats to bridge infrastructure, Umahi called for stronger collaboration with the Nigerian Navy. He said the Navy’s presence on waterways is necessary to stop illegal sand-filling and dredging activities near national bridges.