The Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr Kwesi Amoako-Atta, has said a committee has been set up to audit all speed humps in the country to ease traffic flow, particularly on highways.
He said the illegal construction of speed humps on highways by residents to guard against vehicular knockdowns had become a national canker which needed to be tackled head-on with immediate effect.
“A committee has been set up by the ministry to audit all speed humps in the country and remove those that are unnecessary and unwarranted,” Mr Amoako-Atta added.
The minister said this during a tour of the Accra-Mankessim highway in the Central Region last Wednesday.
He said the illegal speed humps had become a nuisance on the roads and they were denying drivers the comfort they needed to ensure safe driving.
“It has become problematic on roads between Accra and Kumasi, Accra-Aflao, Accra-Takoradi, Kumasi-Tamale roads and Accra-Akosombo,” he said.
Apam incident
During the tour, the minister encountered some people constructing about six speed humps illegally at Apam within a distance of about a quarter of a kilometre and ordered the immediate suspension of the exercise.
He said even though issues of speeding and pedestrian knockdowns were of great concern and needed to be tackled with urgency, the situation did not warrant residents to erect speed humps on international highways.
“This is an international highway with high volumes of vehicles and if they are allowed to continue with this illegality, this area will become another traffic congested stretch, the very problem we are going round to resolve,” Mr Amoako-Atta added.
Reprimand
The minister reprimanded the Central Regional Director of the Ghana Highway Authority, Mr Samuel Ackuoko, for endorsing and overseeing the projects without proper authorisation.
He further warned all regional directors to “be careful” and to go “through the full haul of getting authorisation before initiating construction of speed humps in your respective jurisdictions”.
“Chief Director, within the next two to four days review it, and if it is necessary for us to go ahead, advise me. Until that time, you the regional director should put this portion on hold. Stop it and take the matter up with the Chief Executive of the Ghana Highway Authority. By the weekend, send a technical team here to come and support the regional director to review it”, he said.
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