Gov’t To Reconstruct Tema Motorway Into 10-Lane

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Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Attah has announced that the Accra-Tema motorway will be re-engineered into a 10-lane expressway.

According to him, his outfit is working tirelessly to reconstruct the highway to meet the current and future pressure.

The scope of work of the project includes 10-lane 19.5km motorway comprising 4 lanes of reinforced concrete freeway, 6 lanes of Urban Highway.

The project also comes with reconstruction of Tetteh Quarshie to Apenkwa (5.7 km), Remodeling of Tetteh Quarshie, Apenkwa and Achimota Interchanges, Construction of 5 new Interchanges (Lashibi, Abattoir, Teshie Link, Fiesta Royale and Neoplan junction, 14No. Pedestrian Footbridges, Toll Plazas and Streetlights”.

Last week Friday, the ministry reopened a portion of the motorway ti traffic after a temporary closure to allow for reinforcement work on a damaged bridge along the 19 kilometres stretch.

The renovation work created some inconveniences to motorists as a result of the heavy vehicular traffic the repairs work brought about.

However, speaking in Parliament on Friday June 17, 2022, the Atiwa West lawmaker said “the future programme is to expand the existing motorway to a 10-lane” stretch.

“It will comprise of free-way, access control, three urban highways and a number of footbridges for pedestrian crossing.”

In August 2021, there were claims by the Minority in parliament that the expansion project had no parliamentary approval.

The sector minister refuted the claim made by Kwame Agbodza, who called for the immediate abrogation of the contract awarded to Mota-Engil Engenharia Construcao Africa S.A. and also alleged that Mota-Engil is not qualified to undertake the project on design and build basis.
The ministry, in a statement, said “without the slightest equivocation that the assertions and conclusions” made by the MP were “inaccurate and misleading”.

“We wish to state that the minister and ministry have not, in anyway, breached the requirement for parliamentary approval for the Accra-Tema Motorway Extension Project and, therefore, the full content of the Hon. Member’s press conference should be totally disregarded and ignored by the good people of Ghana”.

The ministry explained that it signed a commercial contract with Mota-Engil in December 2020.

“This commercial contract, as a standalone, cannot be sent to parliament without the complement of a financial agreement. As of now, the financing arrangements are yet to be concluded. It is, therefore, premature for anybody to claim or suggest that we have breached the law, when the documents to be submitted to parliament have not been finalised”, the ministry explained at the time.

“The signing of a commercial contract for internationally funded projects with conditions precedent before its submission to parliament is not unusual.

“On the La Beach Road Completion project, the commercial contract was signed in September 2012 with similar conditions precedent. The cabinet and parliamentary approvals were secured in November and December 2018 respectively and the Contract became effective in 2019.

“Again, on the Accra Intelligent Traffic Management Systems Project, the commercial contract was also signed in September 2012 with similar conditions precedent. The cabinet and parliamentary approvals were secured in November and December 2018 respectively and the contract became effective in 2019.

“The Ministry of Roads and Highways is an active promoter of local content. Indeed, for the Accra-Tema Motorway Extension Project, 40% of all works have been reserved for local contractors. However, we state for the avoidance of doubt that when the competitive bidding process was launched in December 2018, 23 companies expressed interest. None was Ghanaian. It is therefore not accurate to give the impression that Ghanaian companies were excluded.

“It is simplistic and ignorant for anybody to do a simple calculation of cost over kilometres and conclude that the cost of the Accra-Tema Motorway Extension Project is over bloated without recourse to the actual scope and works involved in the Project.”

By: Daily Guide