My New Year wish list
A New Year is an opportunity to make things right and start afresh on a clean slate. As we go into 2017, we would like to see the authorities make strong efforts to complete road projects that have been outstanding for some time now as well as begin planning ahead for expansion projects for the future.
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A year has gone past since this article first appeared in an earlier iteration, and some of the projects that were highlighted then have since been attended to, I’m told.
Hopefully, the incoming government and our future leaders will exercise more responsible stewardship over scarce public resources and refrain from reckless financial moves, the airlift of $3million in hard currency to our soccer players being an example we all want to forget.
I’m told that the Nsawam-Suhum stretch of the Kumasi road is in a much better shape than it used to be, although I am yet to verify this myself. If only this would reduce the number of innocent lives that continue to be lost in countless avoidable accidents, but that is yet to happen.
On behalf of our compatriots from the Eastern, Volta and Northern regions, we will continue to beat the drums around the Eastern corridor roads until they are all fixed and motorable all-year round.
This project continues to hang amid a cloud of rosy promises to get it off the ground, while our citizens continue to endure hours of stress, pain and anguish travelling back and forth between the three regions.
Like many others have done, I have highlighted the unbearable traffic at the Tema/Ashaiman intersection and the need for an interchange at the eastern end of the motorway.
The latest intervention may not be what we asked for (the MPS private partnership), but is nevertheless a worthwhile first step towards diverting as much traffic as possible away from this bottleneck roundabout.
We still maintain however that funding be sought to finance a three-level interchange to enable eastbound traffic to fly over, northbound traffic to fly under and the middle level used for lane changes, like it’s been beautifully executed at the Ako Adjei Interchange in Accra.
Street names and property addresses
Sadly, we still live in the days of directional signs based on landmarks and temporary phenomena like a bofrot-frying kiosk at the street corner or a container shop by the roadside.
Should the kiosk be moved or the colour of a particular building be changed suddenly, we lose our sense of direction completely because the directions were anchored around these specific landmarks.
It was gratifying to see some progress being made on the street-naming last year and this year, but it needs to be a sustained effort. Together with the yet-to-be-revived national identification exercise, it will unleash quite a few economic benefits to many stakeholders.
Elimination of single-lane roadways
One reason why frontal collisions account for a high proportion of accidents in Ghana, leading to avoidable loss of life, is the single-lane design of most of our roads. There is no justification for our major highways to continue to be designed and constructed as single-lane carriageways.
Name it – on the highways leading from Accra in several directions – Takoradi, Kumasi, Aflao – we allow high-speed traffic travelling in opposite directions to be in close proximity with only inches to spare in between them, and then wonder why the slightest human error leads to loss of life.
The dualisation of as many roads as possible will ease traffic and make it possible for drivers to take preventive safety measures to save life and property should the other driver make any false move.
The authorities may continue to sing the tune of lack of funds, but we should steadfastly hold them to the highest safety standards and insist that plans be put in place to at least eliminate single-lane roadways on all trunk roads.
Driving is meant to be an enjoyable activity as well as one that enhances the economic and social well-being of our citizens. At the moment, it isn’t, due to the massive traffic jams, the high risk of accidents and the fact that we can’t find our way to the places we are headed for.
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