FG, Benue plan wider Wurukum flyover in Makurdi to ease traffic
- The Wurukum Flyover in Makurdi will be redesigned as a dual carriageway after Governor Hyacinth Alia asked for more capacity.
- Federal Controller of Works Mukaila Danladi said the bridge is about 69.87 per cent complete and work on the new design awaits approval.
- The wider Makurdi–9th Mile road project is also progressing, with asphalt finished on roughly 87 kilometres.
Plans are in place to rebuild the Wurukum Flyover in Makurdi as a dual carriageway, a change meant to cut traffic around the busy Wurukum Roundabout. The Federal Government and the Benue State Government agreed on the expansion after Governor Hyacinth Alia asked for the bridge to carry more traffic.
Mukaila Danladi, the Federal Controller of Works in Benue, gave the update in Makurdi on Friday. He told the News Agency of Nigeria that the flyover is about 69.87 per cent complete and that the redesign means some parts of the ongoing work have to be reviewed.
Under the current design, the bridge is 8.4 metres wide in total: two carriageways of 3.65 metres each, a 0.7-metre walkway and a 0.4-metre median. The new plan would widen each carriageway to 10.3 metres and make the median one metre.
Danladi said the extra space should help vehicles move more freely around the roundabout. He asked motorists and residents to bear with the disruption, saying work on the revised design will start once it is approved.
"Immediately the review is approved, we would want to introduce some diversions around that location," he said.
Some earlier diversions have already been cleared to help traffic flow, but Danladi warned that new ones may come when the expansion begins. He blamed the design review for slow progress in some sections and said he expects work to pick up now that the rains are easing.
What it means for road users
The flyover is part of the second phase of the Makurdi–9th Mile Road dualisation, which the Federal Government flagged off on September 15, 2025. At that ceremony, Works Minister Dave Umahi called the flyover a gift to Benue from President Bola Tinubu. Governor Alia, who stood in for the president, said the road would help farmers move produce and link the North-east, South-east and South-south.
The lead consultant, Adam Onundi, said the Makurdi–9th Mile project is split into five sections covering about 250.6 kilometres, plus the 15.8-kilometre Lafia Bypass. The Wurukum Flyover sits in the first section.
On the wider Makurdi–Otukpo–9th Mile–Enugu Road, Danladi said about 150 kilometres of the roughly 250-kilometre stretch has reached the layer just before asphalt. The final asphalt layer is done on about 87 kilometres.
For now, the flyover expansion depends on approval of the new design. Until then, drivers should expect the usual hold-ups and follow instructions from construction teams.
