Enormous £8.1bn new coastal road stretching more than 400 miles will start from mega-city

Enormous £8.1bn new coastal road stretching more than 400 miles will start from mega-city A hugely-ambitious new roadbuilding project will give Africa's leading economy a gigantic boost, its backers say, but environmentalists warn that it could be at risk from 'ocean surges' A massive coastal highway is being built along an Atlantic coast – despite significant concerns. The 430-mile motorway, linking Nigeria's mega-city capital Lagos with Calabar city, near the border with Cameroon, is being built at an estimated cost of about £8.5 billion. The mega-highway is the brainchild of Nigerian president Bola Tinubu, who has pledged to "revolutionise" the West African nation’s transport infrastructure and boost tourism. At an event staged to celebrate the opening of the first section of the super-highway, he announced: "We have a road that will outlive all of us here.” But grave concerns have been raised by environmentalists who point out that the highway will be particularly vulnerable to expected sea level rises in the coming decade. Environmental campaigner Nnimmo Bassey, former chairman of Friends of the Earth International, has described the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway as “the very embodiment of climate denial.” “We are witnessing a very rapid rise in sea level along the Nigerian coastline," he points out, warning that the project, set for completion in 2028, will be "highly vulnerable to rising sea levels." Nigeria is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels. The fishing port of Aiyetoro, in the country’s Ondo State, lost 50 buildings in one single “ocean surge” in 2024, and is estimated to have lost 80% of its land area to the sea. Its population is today estimated at around 5,000 – a steep drop from 30,000 in 2006. But President Tinubu is determined to press ahead with the project, making it a centrepiece of his campaign for re-election. The road has been stuck in the planning stage for almost 50 years, but Tinubu and his supporters see it as a vital step forward in Nigeria’s economic development. Orji Uchenna Orji, an adviser to Nigeria’s public works minister, David Umahi, explained: “The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway will be one of the greatest omens that will happen in the political and economic trajectory of this nation. It’s going to be a road with the biggest economic corridor in Africa and will stimulate economic development and transportation ecosystem.” The government is expected to provide 30% of the road’s $12billion budget, with the contractor, Hitech Construction Company Ltd., bearing the rest of the cost. Hitech will collect tolls on the highway for 15 years to recover its investment. Hitech is also behind Eko Atlantic, a $6 billion (£4.5bn), privately funded futuristic mega-city project near Lagos. Built on land reclaimed from the sea, the so-called "Dubai of Africa”, will be protected from flooding by a five-mile concrete barrier known as The Great Wall of Lagos. The company has plans to protect the new road with similar sea walls, as well as natural barriers such as mangrove belts and dunes which will “reduce erosion and absorb carbon.” Much of Nigeria’s natural environment has already been lost to oil and gas mining, and concerns have been raised that the super-highway will cause even more environmental damage. In the south-eastern Akwa Ibom state, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway will cut through Stubbs Creek Forest, a protected area that is home to a variety of endangered species. According to the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, the country has already lost nearly 90% of its forest cover in the last 30 years. According to a 2022 study in the Journal of African Earth Sciences, 89% of the 180 kilometres of coastline in Lagos State receded by an average of 2.80 metres per year between 1973 and 2019. The environmental impact assessment for the section of the road covering Lagos State, conducted by the Nigerian firm Natural Eco Capital and submitted to the Ministry of Public Works in May 2024, two months after construction began, indicates that a "sea level rise of 0.5 metres along the Lagos coast would not affect the highway project." It states that a 1.5-degree increase in global temperatures would lead to a 0.48-metre rise in sea level, and 0.55 metres in the event of a 2-degree increase. However, current IPCC forecasts indicate that warming will likely exceed three degrees by 2100, leading to a sea level rise of more than 0.6 metres.