Govt to construct interchange at Nkrumah Circle-Gidisu

Story: Mary Mensah The government has signed an agreement with the Brazilian government to construct a three-tier vehicular interchange at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle. The $100-million project, which will commence in 2013, is expected to be completed after 24 months. The Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr Joe Gidisu, who made this known at the meet-the-press series in Accra last Tuesday, said the first flyover would carry traffic from the Ring Road Central to the Ring Road West. He said in the opposite direction, an underpass had been proposed with a two-lane traffic and the second flyover to connect the Akasanoma Road and the Ring Road West. Mr Gidisu said about $112.74 million of the $3 billion loan contracted by the government from the China Development Bank for various infrastructure in various sectors of the economy had been earmarked for the Oil Enclave roads in the Western Region. Also, about $234 million had been committed for the completion of the La Beach Road (Accra-Tema) project and the Accra Intelligent Management Traffic System project. Additionally, about $180 million was being used to upgrade 400 km of gravel roads to bitumen surfacing and 300 km of earth roads to gravel surface to improve access roads under the Eastern Corridor Multi Modal Transportation projects. He said the ministry maintained its focus on routine and periodic maintenance activities to protect the huge investment made by the government in road infrastructure development. He said as of the end September 2012, routine maintenance had been undertaken on 7,495.km of the country’s trunk road network, 8,500km feeder road network and 945 km of grading work and pothole patching. According to him, the ministry improved revenue generation for the maintenance of the road network, partly through toll collection at New Offinso on the Kumasi-Techiman road, Kubease on the Nkawkaw-Kumasi road and Sawla on the Bole-Wa road. He said the ministry continued to improve major road corridors to promote trade and economic activities and mentioned the Central Corridor road network. Considerable work, he said, had been done on the transport network, such as the Achimota-Ofankor road, the Nsawam bypass, Asikuma Junction-Hohoe, Agona Junction-Elubo and Giffard and Burma Camp roads. Mr Gidisu appealed to all truckers and haulers to endeavour to respect and abide by the axle load limit of 11.5 tonnes per axle, as adherence would forestall premature failure of the highways and, therefore, save the country huge sums of money that were applied annually for the rehabilitation of some of the roads. He said the government had signed a public-private-partnership agreement with a private promoter to design and construct a flyover and vehicular interchange over the Accra-Tema Motorway at the Teshie Link. He said when the project was completed, residents and motorists bordering the Motorway would be able to cross over the Motorway without going through the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange. Mr Gidisu said the project was expected to commence in 2013 and be completed in 24 months, at an estimated cost of $50 million.