Gov’t closing in on Motorway Reconstruction Project
The Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Atta has said government will soon commence work on the Motorway redesign project.
The minister was however unable to give definite timelines due to what he describes as challenges.
The Tema Motorway is a 19.5 kilometre highway that links Tema to Accra—capital of Ghana.It is the only motorway in Ghana and was built in the 60’s but has outlived its design, with potholes developing on it.
He made this known as a response to a question from Hon Kofi Adams,MP for Buem enquired from him when the Tema Motorway will be reconstructed during a public hearing of the Public Accounts Committee at Parliament House, to consider the 2020 Auditor Generals’ report.
“Motorway has to be worked on, it has gone beyond its design life, we all know it was constructed in the 60’s and it was supposed to have a design life of 50 years, it has gone beyond that, so there are plans to reconstruct the entire motorway, 19.5km and as much as government plans to reconstruct that road, there are few challenges and I believe that very soon we shall go over those challenges and start work but I would not any specific date on it but we have gone very far and it may not be long that work on motorway would start. It comes under the project name of Reconstruction of the Motorway, but let me use this opportunity to say that project is not limited to the Accra -Tema stretch of the motorway, is just a project name and it goes out to Tetteh Quarshie, Apenkwa bridge and ends at the Neoplan traffic light and is a major work.
The motorway itself between Accra and Tema is going to have as many as four interchanges at various sections and some of the lanes will go up to 10 and 5 on the otherside and it will lead to the remodelling of the Tetteh Quartey to deal with the current traffic situation being experienced at the Mall area, there would be another interchange at the Fiesta Royale traffic to deal with the traffic situation there and the Apenkwa bridge is also going to be remodelled under the same programme, so it is a major thing.”
The highway was opened to traffic in November 1965 to link the harbour city of Tema to Accra. It was built under the administration of Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana. Its construction was fashioned after the Autobahn in Germany and was purposed to be the first in motorway systems that would link major towns and cities in Ghana. In August, 2009, rehabilitation work began on the road and was to cost 500,000 cedis. Part of the motorway was to be reconstructed using epoxy cement. The rehabilitation work took eight weeks and involved the removal and replacement of the concrete slabs which had developed potholes and the repair of the asphalt surface on shoulders of the road.
He also assured the members of the committee that government is committed to fixing roads across the country and that they need to rally and support his sector to achieve the objective.
