President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has commissioned Phase One of the much-talked-about Pokuase Interchange project, as part of his two-day tour of the Greater Accra Region.
This is a project the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has lambasted the government over for what they said was not the legacy of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Several debates have ensued between the two parties over who owns the project, bringing the attention of most Ghanaians to the project, which is intended to ease traffic congestion on the Accra-Nsawam and Nsawam-Accra stretch.
The NDC claim they started the project, which was to be three-tier at US$94.8 million, but the NPP renegotiated to have it four-tier for the same amount.
The project, which commenced in April 2018, had an original proposed three-tier single point urban interchange, but, the contractor, after undertaking a value engineering assessment, proposed to construct a four-tier stack interchange, which was approved by the Ministry for Roads and Highways.
The President, on Wednesday, at a ceremony at the location of the four-tier interchange, opened to traffic tier-three of the interchange.
The portion open to traffic is the road from Awoshie to Accra, as well as the road from Kumasi to Awoshie.
The Project Coordinator on the site informed President Akufo-Addo that other tiers of the interchange will be open for use by the general public and motorists in the second week of December, adding that “at the end of March, we would have completed the entirety of the 4th tier.”
In addition to this, President Akufo-Addo was told that some five kilometres of storm drains had been completed “to ensure we don’t have flooding downstream.”
As at December 2019, when the President last visited the site of the interchange, some extra routes, which had become necessary after a review of the works, were advanced, and were completed before the end of 2019, with over 10 kilometres of local community roads being completed within the catchment area of the interchange.
The contractor, Zhongmei Engineering Group Limited, at the time, told the President that four kilometres of asphalt dual carriageway had been completed for the Awoshie section of the project, with landscaping, street lighting, road signs, and pedestrian facilities underway.
Also, one kilometre of asphalt single carriageway had been completed for the Kwabenya section of the project, with pedestrian facilities, and retaining walls construction being undertaken.
The Supervising Engineer on site, Kwabena Bimpong, also told President Akufo-Addo that drainage works, retaining walls, and earthworks were being constructed on the Accra to Kumasi road approaches to the interchange, in addition to the 2.8 kilometres of various sizes of outfall storm drains constructed as part of the project to date.
Touching on the interchange itself, the Engineer revealed that 99% of the pile foundation works had been completed.
He noted also that the Ghana Grid Company’s (GRIDCo’s) 330kv transmission line had been relocated, and 98% of the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG’s) network, which was impacted by the project, had also been relocated.
The post Phase One of Pokuase Interchange open to traffic appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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