According to contractors working on the project, the Kwafokrom–Apedwa portion of the Accra-Kumasi Highway, which is now being dualized, will open to traffic on Thursday, December 23, 2021.
The 31.7-kilometer route will be available for two weeks to relieve traffic congestion on the highway during the holiday season. Mr. Apraku Anane-Appiah, the project’s Resident Engineer, informed the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the road will be closed again after two weeks to allow for the completion of the works.
When the Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr. Kwasi Amoako-Attah, visited the project site last month, he gave orders to open the road. During his visit, Mr Amoako-Attah told the contractors that they needed to “work day and night” to get the road ready to traffic by Christmas.
As of Friday, December 17, 2021, the contractors had completed more than 70 per cent of the work, targeting completion of the entire project by March next year, Mr. Anane-Appiah said.
He said an inspection team from the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) inspected the progress of work on Sunday and gave the approval that the road be opened to traffic for two weeks.
“There are three layers of asphalting that we are doing. So far we have completed the first and second layers.
“So we are going to open it (road) to traffic for two weeks and after that we will close it again and complete the remaining works,” he said.
Mr Anane-Appiah said they had earmarked eight separate footbridges at the various towns along the road to guarantee the safety of residents in those areas.
He said the construction of the footbridges were not part of the original project contract so a separate proposal had been sent to the GHA for approval.
“We will be doing some access roads to the towns along the Highway but with the main road, somewhere February-March we should finish,” Mr Anane-Appiah said.
Work on the Kwafokrom–Apedwa project, which commenced in October 2018, was scheduled to be completed in 24 months by the China International Water and Electric Corporation.
The Government has targeted to build 11,000 km of road between now and 2024, out of which 6,000 km are expected to be fully completed by that time.
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