Five major ways of tackling the never ending and frustrating gridlock in Apapa
Have you ever gotten stuck in the Apapa traffic gridlock. Welcome to the club. The stretch of road that leads to the Lagos sea port is perennially blocked, mostly due to heavy duty vehicles that park indisrimately on the road.
neusroom.com talked to some of the residents in Apapa and they confirmed that it would be great to have a thriving city without congestion. People could reach more destinations in less travel time, and thus have more time to spend doing the things they wanted.
According to a some of the residents the following factors are ways to reduce the congestion in Apapa:
Reduce congestion and ease traffic:
Plans have been underway for donkey years to reduce the gridlock in Apapa, policy-makers want to sound like they are doing something without promising anything. But I don’t think talking to congestion accomplishes much
First and foremost, to tackle the gridlock in Apapa, empty containers within the Apapa area has to be relocated to holding bays;according to a licensed customs agent, the non-utilisation of the Apapa Port railway link has contributed immensely to the poor traffic situation in the area.
Monitoring the holding bay:
The Lagos State Sector Command, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) says a permanent solution to the Apapa gridlock is the establishment of holding bays to accommodate trucks and articulated vehicles before loading.
The stakeholders with owners of tank farms should begin to pay attention to having a holding bay that can contain some trucks before being called in to load
Shipping companies are not to be allowed to operate holding bays within the Apapa Port location.
Tank farms:
Owners of tank farms should provide facilities that would accommodate trucks coming into their facilities to load.
Tanks farms are not to be permitted within the Apapa area.
Licencing access and trailer parks:
Process of licencing access to trailer parks and port location by the Nigerian Ports Authority has to commence as-soon-as-possible; also advertisement seeking for expression of interests from private sector to operate trailer parks and holding bays within the Tin Can Island area to be issued.
Task force:
A task force to manage the flow of traffic within the Apapa and Tin Can Island environ is to be established.
