The 19-kilometer concrete Accra-Tema Motorway is deteriorating and posing a serious safety risk to vehicles.
Potholes, bitumen patches, erosion, and hardened lumps from spilled concrete are still causing a danger and annoyance to drivers and passengers who commute on the 56-year-old highway a year after the Daily Graphic reported on its deteriorating state.
Potholes, some of which have been fixed with bitumen, have left the country’s only concrete freeway in a dangerous state on both sides, especially at night when visibility on the stretch is poor.
The Tema-Accra sector is the most affected, according to five weeks of monitoring by the Daily Graphic as a follow-up to a similar operation in March last year.
For example, the stretch of highway at the Ashaiman tollbooth, where transport vehicles idle on the shoulders for hours at a time, has developed potholes and erosion has eaten away at the edges.
The segment just before the Abattoir bridge is perhaps the most perilous, with potholes so exposed that drivers are forced to slow down, causing traffic congestion all the way to the Ashaiman under-bridge region.
The motorway’s median is overrun with weeds, and several of the galvanized pipes designed to block off illegal U-turn sites have broken down, with some laying beside the route.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic last year, Minister of Roads and Highways Kwasi Amoako-Attah said that plans for the renovation of the highway to make it safer for users were well advanced.
He remarked at the time, “We are in the process of repairing the freeway soon to assure the safety of road users.”
Despite the minister’s assurances, there has been no serious renovation of the highway since then.
Instead, motorists are still faced with the nightmare of a decaying highway, prompting widespread calls for the government to repair and restore it to its original condition.
The current state of the highway has not only caused inconvenience to travelers, but it has also increased the expense of travel.
While the Daily Graphic team commuted in roughly 20 minutes without traffic on the Accra-Tema stretch, the Tema-Accra stretch took 28 minutes even though there was very little traffic.
Because of the potholes, cars were obliged to slow down.
Lawrence Mensa Duku, a cab driver from Kpone who works on the highway, told the Daily Graphic that traveling on the road now takes longer since drivers have to slow down to avoid potholes.
“These days, because of the potholes and uneven surface of the highway, we can’t go as fast as we used to.” “You could be driving at a particular speed when a pothole appears in front of you, and if you don’t pay attention, you could end up throwing your car away attempting to avoid the pothole,” he warned.
During rush hour, he said, the situation was much more perilous since drivers overtook one another indiscriminately, regardless of the state of the road.
“A vehicle may overtake you and crash into a large pothole, causing a tyre to rupture,” he explained.
The Ghana Highway Authority (GHAGreater )’s Accra Regional Director, Emmanuel Laryea Odai, told the Daily Graphic that plans were in the works to resurface the entire highway to make it safer for vehicles and pedestrians.
In the meantime, the GHA’s Mobile Maintenance Unit would be resourced to perform routine maintenance as the government prepares to replace the highway, he said.
“The unit has been working on the highway,” Mr Odai explained, “and that is intended to be interim measures to keep it functioning until the restoration work begins, as specified by the sector minister.”
The government is in the process of issuing the contract for the renovation of the motorway and the dualization of other highways across the country, according to Stephen Pambiin Jalulah, a Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways.
“I understand that finance arrangements for contractors to begin work on the highway will be made soon,” he stated.
Mr Jalulah stated that the contract for the design and renovation of the highway from the Tema Interchange to the Neoplan Junction at Achimota had already been granted.
