Monitoring of road works to be intensified
The Department of Urban Roads is to strengthen its monitoring and supervision wings to enable them to ensure value for money on road works across the country.
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The move is also to ensure that contractors who do not live up to expectation are checked to do the right thing.
The Director of the Department of Urban Roads, Mr Abass Awolu, said this in an interview in Accra on June 15 in response to complaints about shoddy works undertaken by some road contractors in many parts of the country.
This paper, upon a tip-off, undertook checks on some of the roads in Accra, particularly in Adabraka, Dansoman Estates and the Dansoman SSNIT Flats and observed that some of the patched potholes were not properly done. As a result either new ones had developed around them or the old ones had exposed again after a short period.
The supervision and monitoring has become crucial in view of the millions of Ghana cedis belonging to taxpayers that the government spends in its quest to fix the bad roads and construct new ones.
Mr Awolu described the situation as unfortunate and noted that the department will ensure that contractors do the right thing.
Funds for projects
Meanwhile, the government is to release about GhC40 million as emergency funding to fix some of the roads that have been damaged in Accra as a result of the heavy rains.
Out of the amount, about GhC30 million is to be spent on asphalt overlays among others while the remaining amount is to be used for the dredging of some water channels to carry more water to prevent the destruction of the roads.
Scope of work
Between 120 kilometers and 200 kilometers of roads have been earmarked for resealing.“Again, already we are looking at Accra/Tema area and considering well over 200 kilometers of roads for the asphalt overlay”, he said.
Damage in categories
“As a result of the rains, we also have washouts of some culverts towards the East Legon Galaxy School and the Nima areas and so on.
Mr Awolu said there were other roads being roads that had not even been paved which had had their surfaces worsened after the rains.
He said these conditions had made the road bad, hence the need to move in to restore them to appreciable levels.
Mr Awolu also mentioned the pothole patching as one of the things that the department was working on.
Support from contractors
Mr Awolu said through discussions with the Minister and after meeting ‘’our pothole patching contractors, they have all come on board to help address the challenges.”
According to him, they have pledged to take on pothole patching for this month as part of their corporate social responsibility to restore the roads to their normal conditions.
“So 25 of them in Accra, Ga South to Tema and Ashaiman are on board and they will be working day and night to fix the roads”, he added.
Roads with more traffic
“More importantly for some of the roads that carry a lot more traffic such as the Ring Road between Awudome and Obetsebi Lamptey Circle, the roads are bad. Also the Danquah Circle and Labone junction will be considered as well as the La Beach road”, he said.
Mr Awolu explained that on the La Beach road for instance, it is the intention of the department to patch the potholes on that stretch and complete it with an asphalt overlay to preserve the road.
He said a section of the coastal road between Sakumono village and Tema, Ashaiman and Tema from the hospital roads will be asphalted.
“We already have some contracts running on the streets of Accra and Tema and some of the roads were not originally part of that. So we will discuss with the ministry to have those roads fixed”, he said.
He said the department was also considering resealing of some of the local roads within areas such as Dzorwulu, Abelemkpe, Sabon Zongo, Banana Inn, where some local roads got damaged by the rains.
For the asphalt, he also noted that overlays would be done on the roads that carry a lot more traffic.