THE Lagos State Government said it would begin a six-month traffic diversion on roads within Lagos Island from Monday, May 13.

The plan is to carry out major repairs of deteriorated asphaltic sections of the roads along Adeniji through Falomo, Bourdillon and Queens Drive on Lagos Island.

The Commissioner for Transportation, Oluwaseun Osiyemi, disclosed this in a statement on Friday, May 10.

He said the repair work was scheduled to begin on Monday, May 13, and to last until November 7.

To mitigate the inevitable traffic implications the closure would cause, Osiyemi said the repair works would be conducted in phases.

“Phase one will focus on the stretch from Glover Road Junction on Alfred Rewane Road to Falomo Roundabout, starting from Monday, 13th May 2024. During this phase, the portion of the road from Glover Junction to Falomo Roundabout will be closed to traffic.

“For the period of the 1st Phase repair works, motorists on Alfred Rewane Road heading towards Falomo Roundabout will turn left at Glover Road Junction onto Thompson Avenue to access Falomo Bridge through Bourdillon Road and continue their journeys.

“The other side of the road will be open to traffic (i.e. Falomo Roundabout heading towards Mainland).”

Osiyemi urged motorists to exercise patience as, according to him, the partial closure is an integral part of the traffic management strategy for rehabilitating the asphalt pavement on the affected road sections by the Federal Ministry of Works.

Lagos State has the worst road traffic among all cities, with at least 500,000 inhabitants around the world.

This is according to the Global Traffic Congestion Rankings 2023 by Traffic Index, putting Riga, the capital and largest city of Latvia, as second and Tehran, the capital and largest city of Iran, as third.

The ICIR reported recently that the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos was closed in November 2023 and reopened for public use in April, following comprehensive repairs that were carried out.