Acting director general of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Ing. David Osafo Adonteng, has attributed insufficient funds as the reason for the seeming neglect of issues on maintenance of the country’s roads.
According to him, the problems associated with road infrastructure, potholes and road dualization are critical matters that are on the desk of discussion between the Authority and relevant stakeholders. He indicated that at all times, these stakeholders interact with the National Road Safety Authority, raising red flags and proffering opinions, suggestions and inputs to draw out direct policies.
Ing. Adonteng stated that the Authority recently met with the ministry of roads and highways, the Ghana Highway Authority to deliberate on the issue, which is done on quarterly basis.
“… We meet and bring to their attention, some of the observations we have made on our own and others that we receive from the general public and civil societies. We told them where the problems are, areas that require immediate intervention as far as safety is concerned. Now, they gave us their word that they will go and deal with the situation. When the next quarter comes and we meet, we assess the performance of each agencies… Usually, what comes up most is lack of funds.”.
Ing. David Osafo Adonteng
Ing. Adonteng noted that although the NRSA understands that government does not have to address all the problems raised at the same time, he emphasized that it also does not mean that agencies are not doing anything, as the problems are many and cannot be fixed in one day.
Dualization of roads in the country
Commenting on the dualization of roads to avert traffic and accident on the roads, the NRSA’s Acting director general stated that the dualization the Authority is championing is basically targeted at sections of the road and not the entire road network in the country because it cannot be done.
He explained that even in the developed countries, they don’t have every road dualized, although there are certain corridors the NRSA is advancing that it should have dualization.
“Beyond that, there are sections that do not need dualization but they may need certain engineering measures that may require that perhaps some lanes are re-engineered, some areas we bring in speed ramps or traffic calming measures to minimize speed and various engineering intervention. So, we are able monitor the performance of such interventions.”
Ing. David Osafo Adonteng
Furthermore, Ing. Adonteng highlighted that unfortunately, the problems associated with the roads in the country are many and authorities cannot use a year or two years to deal with all of them at a time. This, he underscored, is because it’s very difficult to undertake and also capital intensive.
“It is rather unfortunate, the potholes issue which is coming up now, appears to be a bit more pronounced in all the problems that we’ve done…”
On his part, Road contractor and consultant, Abdulai Mahama, revealed that when it comes to some of the best roads in the country, the N1 is not part of it.
Additionally, he stated that the motorway, for all it’s worth, has outlived its design life. He explained that from about sixty years or so, it has gone through a properly designed life and now needs to be reconstructed or improved.
“Other roads across the country, you’ll see the Walker George Bush road at Dzorwulu towards Accra Girls, the Opeibea to Madina road, the Madina-Adenta… these are all very good roads which have stayed over ten to fifteen years on the average…”
Abdulai Mahama
The road consultant further emphasized that the construction of concrete roads are not supposed to be undertaken on all roads but reserved for areas where there are highly industrial activities. He explained that it ought to be done in areas where a certain limit of weight is expected because the cost of doing a concrete road is very expensive.
“That’s why you see the Tema motorway and the harbor area having a lot of the concrete roads because of the expected weight we are getting from the ports.”
Abdulai Mahama
READ ALSO: We Have Not Received Any Request From NPP To Transfer Votes Of Any Person- EC To NDC
