Planned footbridges on George Bush Highway not abandoned – Minister

Government's plan to construct more footbridges on the accident-prone George Walker Bush Highway to ensure pedestrian safety is still on course and work will soon begin, Minister for Roads and Highways, Alhaji Aminu Hamidu Sulemana, has as-sured.

The Minister told Public Agenda in an interview, “As I said we have programmes to build some footbridges on the road[ George walker Bush Highway] to encourage pedestrians to use them, so that we can minimise the fatalities on the road.”

He was reacting to the paper's front-page lead story captioned 'GEORGE BUSH HIGHWAY CLAIMS MORE LIVES… AS GOV'T RENEGES ON PROMISES… 52 DIE IN 19 MONTHS' as published in the Monday, August 12, 2013 edition.

The story referred to an announcement made by the Minister on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, February 19th 2013 that government planned to build six more footbridges on the George Bush Highway. He was then contributing to a statement by the New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Ablekuma Central, Patrick Boamah, on the increasing number of road crashes on the 14.1 kilometer Highway.

Mr Sulemana again reiterated on Citi FM's Eyewitness News that: “Government is mobilizing the resources to put up the foot bridges.” However, six months after the plan was announced, work is yet to begin and road users are beginning to express worry over the long delay on the commencement of work on the footbridges.

But Mr Sulemana insisted in the interview that government was unwavering in its commitment to ensuring that the high speed road was safe for the usage of all. He attributed the delay in the execution of project partly to the decision to incorporate a disability component in the design and lack of funding.

He admitted that the already existing footbridges on the Highway had some challenges that made them unfriendly, particularly for Persons with Disability (PWDs) to use. As a result, “We must make sure that we do them [new footbridges] in a manner that will make them disability friendly.”

He said as a temporary measure, “ We will do the five footbridges, and they will be well placed in such a way that people will not fill reluctant to walk in order to cross the bridge.”

The new footbridges, he said, would be erected at densely populated locations such as the Fiesta Royal Hotel, Lapaz, Nyamekye Junction, Kwashieman Junction and Awoshie Junction. “The programme is still on and we will do them,” he promised.

Besides the footbridges, Mr Sulemana disclosed that two additional underpasses would be constructed, one at Akweteman and the other between Awoshie and Mallam junction.

The George Walker Bush Highway was part of a number of projects which were undertaken under the Millennium Challenge Compact between Ghana and the United States. It was opened in February 2012.

After one and a half years of its use, the highway has contributed to lots of deaths and casualties to both pedestrian and drivers plying the road. Available statistics from the Ghana Police Service indicates 52 persons had so far died from February 2012 to July 2013 as a result of accidents while 248 people suffered various degrees of injuries.

The accidents occurred mainly at densely populated locations such as Awoshie, Kwashieman and Abeka Lapaz traffic light intersections, where the footbridges are needed most, considering the large numbers of people who cross the Highway at those points.

Currently, there are only six footbridges on the road and the nearest footbridges are about 20 minutes walking distance away from the traffic light intersections. Thus many pedestrians, after alighting from commercial vehicles and wanting to cross to the other side of the road, find it difficult to access the footbridges.