Akufo-Addo 'started Pokuase Interchange from scratch' – Roads Minister

The Minister of Roads and Highways has announced that the almost-completed Pokuase Interchange in Accra will be opened to traffic by President Nana Akufo-Addo in the first week of July 2021.

“God willing, in the first week in July, the President will officially commission the Pokuase interchange”, Kwasi Amoako-Atta told journalists at a press briefing on Sunday, 23 May 2021.

“It would have been brought to a total and full competition”, he noted.

“This is the project that was started from scratch by President-Akufo’s government. This interchange will be opened in full to traffic in the first of July”, he said.

He also noted that the Akufo-Addo government will complete 20 of the 25 interchanges earmarked for construction before the end of his second term.

“Mark me down; by 2024, 20 interchanges will likely be completed”, Mr Amoako-Atta told journalists at a press briefing on Sunday, 23 May 2021.

“By the end of our second term, 20 interchanges in our country would have been built, we have estimated 25 but we are convinced and sure and we know what we are about”, he said, explaining that the government has “programmed whatever we are doing and we would have had about 25 interchanges in our country”.

“This has never happened in any administration since independence”, Mr Amoako-Atta said.

He also noted that the government has earmarked 120 out of 200 programmed bridges in various part of the country for completion this year.

They include 50 bridges under the Czech Bridges Programme of which “bridge components are being fabricated in the Czech Republic with the arrival of 21 of them in the country pending the start of work.”

Some of the targeted projects include bridges is Dikpe, Iture and Ankobra Bridge; the Volivo cable-stay bridge, Adawso to Ekyeamanfrom Bridge over the Volta in Afram Plains, 89 Mabey Bailey Bridges as well as the reconstruction of Buipe, Yapei and Daboya Bridges.

The Minister also stated that between 2017 and 2020, the government had constructed about 4,000 kilometres of roads in the country.

“As part of the government’s year of road programme, critical roads of total length 2,167.2km were identified in all the 16 regions of the country for rehabilitation at a cost of GHS 7.827billion,” he said.

“325 projects are currently ongoing across cocoa growing areas across the country. Total length of roads is 4,853km at a cost of GHS14.511billion. The Ministry of Roads and Highways has programmed to undertake 1,500km of asphaltic overlay in major towns and cities across the country including hospitals, schools, courts, police barracks, army garrisons, and other security services compounds.”