Pokuase interchange to begin

• Posted on July 4, 2018
• by Ellsamwise King
• Comment

The sod was cut Tuesday for work to begin on an interchange at Pokuase to ease congestion on a portion of the Accra-Nsawam road.

The project, which is expected to cost $84 million, is being jointly funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Ghana government. It will be completed by April 2020.

Once completed, it will ease traffic congestion, improve urban mobility, facilitate economic activities and generally improve livelihood on the Accra-Nsawam road. The project is made up of a three-tier interchange at Pokuase, a five-kilometer Awoshie-Pokuase road, the construction of a two-kilometer Accra-Nsawam road, the construction of a two-kilometer Kwabenya road and the construction of 10 kilometers of local roads.

It is being executed by Zhongmei Engineering Group Ltd, a Chinese construction company.

The Senior Minister, Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, cut the sod for the project to begin on behalf of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

In a speech read on his behalf by the Senior Minister, President Akufo-Addo said traffic jam was a major waste of human resource, and therefore, all efforts were needed to minimize traffic on the country’s roads.

Value for money

President Akufo-Addo charged the Ministry of Roads and Highways to ensure that the contractors delivered the project on time.

He said the road must be constructed to specification with skills and according to the design. He appealed to the consultants to make sure that the project was delivered as designed and in good quality, adding, “we shall not entertain any shoddy works.”

The President reminded the ministry that the Presidency would monitor the progress of work closely to make sure that the project was delivered to design.

Compensations

On payment of compensations, the President charged the officers who would be tasked to pay those whose projects would be affected to do so transparently and on time.

He warned that the government would not countenance any attempt to short-change people whose property would be affected.

He expressed worry that in situations such as those, the affected persons were made to run around and ended up receiving a paltry sum of what was devoted to them.

For his part, the Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr. Kwasi Amoako Atta, expressed excitement for the commencement of the project, which, he said, was to ease the drudgery commuters had been going through while using the Accra-Nsawam road.

He said all the five aspects of the project had been awarded to Zhongmei Engineering Group Limited.

African Development Bank

Expressing happiness that the project was about to take off, the Country Director of the AfDB, Dr. Yero Baldeh, said the project demonstrated the co-operation between the country and the bank.
He said the bank had so far spent about $613 million on a number of projects in the country.