The Accra-Tema Motorway will be reconstructed in August, according to Minister of Roads and Highways Kwasi Amoako-Atta.
He stated that the government and a private investor have struck a financial deal for the project to begin.
Mr Amoako-Atta revealed this during a working visit to the highway yesterday.
Engineers and directors from the ministry's various agencies followed him.
The visit came after a front-page report in the Daily Graphic last week titled 'A year on, Accra-Tema Motorway Still in Bad Shape,' which highlighted the extent of deterioration of the country's only concrete motorway after five weeks of monitoring as a follow-up to a similar exercise in March last year.
Urgency
Mr Amoako-Atta indicated that the state of the highway was a cause of concern for the government, and that as a result, it will be rebuilt as soon as possible.
"I want Ghanaians to know that the entire highway section from Tema to Tetteh Quarshie in Accra, which is about 19.5 kilometers long, is going to be repaired, and we are nearing the end of the discussion, so we will cut the sod for construction to begin as soon as August." He stated, "The contractor has already been chosen."
He said a commercial agreement had already been delivered to Parliament for approval, and a finance agreement was being written for the legislature to approve the project's start.
"It (the highway) will be modified under President Akufo-administration, Addo's and the work will extend beyond Tetteh Quarshie." Despite the fact that the project's name is Accra-Tema Motorway, it extends all the way to Apenkwa and spans all the way to Neoplan in Achimota," he explained.
Overage
Mr. Amoako-Atta noted that the highway, which first opened to traffic in November 1965, had reached the end of its planned life and needed to be replaced.
As a result, he stated that the government will focus on the old Tema roundabout to Tetteh Quarshie in Accra as the project's first phase before moving on to the rest.
"Due to the rapid pace of development, the project will be divided into three sections." The first runs from Tema roundabout to Tetteh Quarshie; the second runs from Tetteh Quarshie to Apenkwa; and the third runs from Apenkwa to Neoplan," he explained.
He also estimated that the project would take four years to complete.
"Tetteh Quarshie will be remolded to alleviate the present traffic congestion there." As a result, it will be a massive undertaking that will begin in August. The entire stretch might have taken four years, but we're doing it in stages, and we'll work quickly but not at the expense of quality, so by the end of 2024, we'll have accomplished a lot.
Maintenance
Due to the busy nature of the highway, the minister said the government was working on the tactics that would be implemented to redirect traffic when the construction began in two months.
"We'll make sure that traffic is expertly controlled so that we can minimize the inconveniences," he stated.
Meanwhile, he stated that the ministry's Mobile Repairs Unit will continue to do maintenance to keep the highway operational.
"Right now, our MMU is out on the road, inspecting for potholes and making the route passable for cars." "All highways require constant maintenance," he explained.
Replacement of a bridge
The La Klapa River Bridge, popularly known as the 'Abattoir Bridge,' will be replaced in three weeks, according to Yakubu Koray, Director of Bridges at the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA).
The effort to rebuild the bridge will begin next Friday, he declared, or it will fall.
"The replacement will be a reinforced concrete slab, with construction beginning on Friday and expected to be completed in three weeks."
"We need to repair certain pieces of the deck slap since they have developed flaws." "The procedure will entail splitting them into bits and recreating them," he explained.