SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE: MONORAIL PROJECT Abubakar Nma Alkali Senior Environmental Consultant, BGI Resources Ltd Port Harcourt, Nigeria alkadon@yahoo.com
PORT
HARCOURT
INTRODUCTION The city of Port Harcourt is growing at a very fast rate both in population and in spatial dimensions with attendant demand for transport infrastructures. The near absence of a sustainable transport system in the city is now hindering mobility needs of the city dwellers apart from unavoidable lost of business hours. The congestion in some parts of the city has become almost unbearable as commuters are often faced with excruciating experience in moving from one part of the city to another. Though this situation can be attributed to the increased influx of people and businesses to the city in search of job as the hub of oil and gas activity, the traffic situation in the city is at the verge of undermining the business activity of the city. THE PROJECT Worried by this situation and in attempt to provide a sustainable transport system, the former administration in 2014 established the Rivers Monorail Company with a mandate to come up with a monorail system that will reduce the gridlock in the city of Port Harcourt. The Port Harcourt Monorail Project is an intracity mass transit rail system, the first of its kind in Nigeria. The project is an innovative people-mover system based on a train running on a single way (guide way), which acts as both a support structure and guide. The Monorail beam is elevated, supported by columns which in turn are supported by a foundation. The monorail covers approx. twenty kilometers within the city of Port Harcourt, serving 14 stations in the city.
SUSTAINABILITY Laudable as this project is, fears however, have been expressed that the new administration will not buy into the project and hence may suffer abandonment even though colossal amount of money has already been expended on the project. Sustainability has always been a serious challenge with projects in Nigeria.
IMPLEMENTING AGENCIES AND CONSULTANTS Rivers State Ministry of Transport in conjunction with the Rivers Monorail company Ltd engaged international railway engineering consulting firm to review work done, make a detailed feasibility study and provide project management and technical support services to the Ministry of Transport. The funding of the project is solely provided by the Rivers State Government. EXPECTED IMPACT/BENEFIT The Rivers Monorail Project when completed will be of great benefit to the city dwellers as it serves to reduce travel times and reduce vehicular congestion with its attendant pollution from automobile exhausts. Monorails look attractive and clean. They are also suspended above the ground and therefore do not occupy much space. Since they are operated in silent modes, it will reduce noise and number of vehicles in use as most residents would prefer to use the rail instead of their cars. RERENCES The following document aided the development of this case study: 1. TopGov (2015).The Port Harcourt Mono Rail project. [Online] Available from: https://topgov.org/projects/rivers/port-harcourt/the-port-harcourt-monorail-project. [Accessed: 24th October, 2015]. 2. Kelvin E. (2015) “We are wasting man-hours�. The Guardian [online] 23rd July. Available from: http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/2015/07/we-are-wasting-man-hours/ [Accessed: 24th October, 2015]. 3. Riversmonorail (2014).The Rivers Monorail.[Online]Available from: http://riversmonorail.ng/.[Accessed: 24th October, 2015].