Why Eko-Atlantic: Why is the $6 billion real estate development being built on land reclaimed from the Atlantic ocean necessary?
In 1905, the port of Lagos was growing rapidly for the trade in and out of Lagos but there was a small problem, the channel that led to the pre-existing Lagos port was too shallow to let large ships through. To solve this problem, frustrated port authorities decided to build sea walls on either side of the channel and dredge the middle to make it deeper for ships to go through. The project was completed in 1912, ships could get through, problem solved.
But the sea walls disrupted the natural flow of the ocean, blocking the movement of sand that’s been coming in from the West African coastline for thousands of years. This set off an erosion of 25 to 30 meters of the coastline yearly, with the Atlantic Ocean creeping closer and closer to the streets of Victoria Island. Attempts to replace lost coastlines and protect Victoria Island from impending flood and erosion by sand filling were unsuccessful. And in 2005, a heavy rainstorm washed half of the Ahmadu Bello coastal road into the sea. Something drastic had to be done to protect Victoria Island.
That year, the government employed Hitech Construction, an arm of the Chagoury Group, to launch a shoreline defence project that involved the construction of a sea wall to enable the restoration of Ahmadu Bello Road and ultimately protect Victoria Island and the rest of Lagos. In November 2006, there was another heavy storm and the section of the wall that had been constructed at the time saved Victoria Island from further erosion. However, given the fact that over the decades of the 80s and 90s, Victoria Island had gradually become an extension of the commercial financial sector of Lagos, stakes for further development of the area became at a premium. So instead of just building a protective wall that’d cost a lot of money with no additional value, the consultant engineers advised constructing a wall along the original coastline before the erosion started to create an area that could be sand filled and reclaimed. And on that footprint, build a modern city, the extension of the commercial financial sector of Lagos, of Victoria Island. It was also a way of working with nature rather than fight it. It was upon this rationale the development of Eko Atlantic began.
The Great Wall of Lagos
The 8.5-kilometre-long, nine metre-high protective seawall is a formidable structure that can withstand the worst storm in a thousand years, according to test reports from the Danish Hydraulic Institute in Copenhagen. The wall itself is formed by three distinct layers of rocks and accropodes. Each layer, a buffer to various possible effects of a wave action.
Hundreds of thousands of rocks ranging from half a ton to two tons in weight form the base of the seawall. Protecting that layer, are rocks weighing three to five pounds, there to serve a drainage function for overspray caused by heavy wave impact on the wall. These rocks are further sheltered by X shaped accropodes that interlock to form a continuous structure along the wall. These accropodes weigh five-ton each and are cast on-site. So far, about 63,000 accropodes have been placed on 6750 meters of the wall already constructed. The final stretch of 1750 metres is expected to be completed within the next two to three years.
The developments so far, and those to come
Eko Atlantic is rapidly taking shape. 65 percent of the 10 square kilometres of land intended for development has been reclaimed. 70 percent of the reclaimed land has been purchased. Infrastructure is 90 percent done in Phase 1 of the city, about 70 percent complete in Phase 2, and 20 percent in Phase 3. The city’s first residential building, the famous Eko Pearl Towers, was completed a little over four years ago and accommodates a thousand residents. Alpha 1, the city’s pioneer office building was completed in 2016. Then there’s the Azuri Peninsula, a cluster of three towers right on the edge of the Marina; two of the towers are for residential purposes and one is an office complex. This project is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.
One thing that stands out in the development of Eko-Atlantic is the purposive, calculated, detailed design and constructions. Every plot, road, drainage, footpath, down to the choice of stone used in the construction of certain parts of the city is well thought out, as should be and as is the standard in developed cities and countries around the world. This quality of city planning and detailed attention to infrastructure development is rare in Lagos and in Nigeria.
Eko Boulevard, the central business district of the city, is designed to accommodate an eight-lane road, a 14-meter wide pedestrian walkway, LED streetlights, trees and high rise towers of 30 floors or more on either side of the boulevard. In line with the city’s architectural design, developers are encouraged to add cantilevers to buildings to act as shelters over the pedestrian walkways. The city’s famous 14 to 18 meters wide promenade offers a cinematic view of the ocean. Here, people can take walks, cycle, or engage in other recreational activities in full glare of the ocean.
Eko Atlantic has a strict no-parking on the street rule, hence land plots are sand-filled lower than the street level to allow developers to maximise opportunities for the construction of basement parking lots so that people can park their cars in a controlled environment. Residents do not require generators, boreholes and septic tanks of their own. There are pre-installed utility services below every sidewalk, connected to every plot of land in the city, all that is required is a connection to this pre-installed utility system, a plug and play model of operation. The provision of these facilities saves developers and residents a lot of money in terms of administration costs.
To check floods in the aftermath of heavy rainfalls, there’s an 18-metre-wide, three-metre-deep canal that spans the entire length of the city and a network of storm drains around the city designed to pull excess rainwater or groundwater by gravity to the canal, and back into the sea. From the far west end of the city to the far east end of the city, there’s an expressway on either side of the canal. This system of traffic is meant to aid movement for commuters who want to move quickly from one end of the city to the other.
The canal itself will also serve as a means of transportation through the city with a jetty situated at the commodore channel for ships and water taxis to drop off people coming into the city. These people can then proceed to use smaller vessels of transportation within the canal. There are also 15 bridges crossing the canal. All 15 bridges have been completed. There’s also a tunnel to regulate the flow of traffic in and out of the city by road. Traffic into the city is above the tunnel, while vehicles leaving the city go through the tunnel.
Then there’s the marina for pleasure yachts and small boats; it is 300 meters in diameter and can accommodate up to 300 vessels ranging from six to 20 metres in length. This makes it one of the largest marinas in the world. There are access points for boats mooring at the marina to connect to power and potable water provided by the city.
Additional impacts
The development of this mega city creates jobs for thousands of Nigerians, directly and indirectly. Every day, hundreds of trucks make round trips in and out of the city with construction materials. Rocks for the seawall are quarried in Ibadan, Oyo state and transported to the city. The concrete poles for the streetlights are also manufactured in a factory in Ibadan. The accropodes and the drainage and sewage pipes are manufactured on-site. All of these require skilled labour and a sufficient amount of manpower.
In an interview with Business Insider two years ago, Ronald Chagoury Jr, Vice Chairman, Eko Atlantic, said the development of Eko Atlantic involves 95 percent Nigerian workers and that 90 percent of the work is either done by companies in Nigeria or by internal teams built for the city.
