Real-time traffic monitor to be installed in Accra, Nsawam
The Department of Urban Roads (DUR) is to establish control centres to monitor real-time traffic and respond appropriately in some parts of Accra and Nsawam.
The system will, among other things, have cameras on some of the major routes to monitor the traffic situation in the city to facilitate orderly flow of traffic.
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The project, known as the installation of Area Wide Traffic Signal Control Systems, will be deployed on the Nsawam Road, the Kwame Nkurmah Avenue and the Kojo Thompson Road, covering 46 kilometres.
How it would work
The DUR Regional Engineer in charge of Development and Traffic, Nana Kwame-Fori Obuobi, told the Daily Graphic that the project involved 39 traffic intersections and would be powered by solar energy.
He said as part of the project, cameras would be installed at 30 locations for the monitoring of intersections and corridors, as well as vehicle detectors to efficiently manage volumes of traffic and minimise delays.
Apart from that, six intersections would be equipped to prioritise and pre-empt Bus Rapid
Transit (BRT) bus movement.
Eighty-six buses are to be fitted with transponders to enable anticipation and priority at the six signal locations.
Nana Obuobi said the project, to be financed by the Agence Française de Développement, was expected to begin this year and expected to be completed within a year.
Current live feed
Currently in Ghana, a website: www.traffic.com.gh, provides live traffic video and offers easy access to a growing number of traffic cameras in Accra.
The live feeds come from the Giffard–Burma Camp Road, the Oxford Street (Osu), the Airport Bypass Road (Airport City), the Harbour Road, the Motorway Roundabout (Tema), the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange and Ring Road Central, near the Samsung office.
The DUR’s plans come at a time when Accra and Kumasi particularly have come under strenuous traffic during the rush hours, leaving frustrated motorists and commuters to endure hours in the gridlock in and out of the cities.
The situation is made worse by traffic lights that have either broken down or are malfunctioning in perpetual amber, giving wrong signals to motorists that they could drive on at the same time, even at intersections.
At the last count, the Daily Graphic counted at least 17 traffic lights that were either totally off or malfunctioning in Accra.
But Nana Obuobi said the problems with the traffic lights varied from temporary challenges such as power trips/surges, light off, the stealing of cables to the dumping of refuse into the controllers.
According to the DUR, there were 239 intersections with traffic lights in the city. Out of the number, there are 31 solar intersections under maintenance, with total intersections, including those still under defect liability, standing at 72.