By Jesse Ampah Owusu
Accra, Feb. 29, GNA – Mr Francis Asenso-Boakye, Minister of Roads and Highway, has urged contractors working on the Tema Motorway Roundabout Project- Phase Two to complete the project ahead of schedule.
The Minster said just as the Phase One of the project was completed ahead of schedule, he wanted the second phase to also be completed earlier to bring relief to commuters.
Mr Asenso-Boakye said this during a tour of the project site at the Tema Motorway along with officials from his Ministry and the Ghana Highway Authority.
The contractors, JFE Engineering Corporation, planed to complete the project by December 2024; however, the Minister impressed on them to speed it up to the closing weeks of October 2024.
The project dubbed: “The Project for the Improvement of Tema Motorway Roundabout Phase II” commenced on July 15, 2022 and consists of the construction of a recommended third-tier flyover of the Tema Harbour – Akosombo stretch.
The project stretches from the Total Fuel Station at Tema Community Nine towards the Ashaiman Timber Market on the Tema – Akosombo road.
The project, being funded with a Japanese grant of $27 million, is expected to provide an anchor for the continuous expansion of the 64 – kilometer Tema – Akosombo stretch.
The Minister admonished the contractors to employ a day and night-around the clock operations and add more staff if necessary to speed up the project completions.
Mr Asenso-Boakye said the full complement of the project when completed would ease the intense traffic in the area and improve free vehicular flow from Tema and other adjourning communities.
He added the project would serve both domestic and international traveling needs and improve the flow of movement from the Tema Harbour to Accra and the ECOWAS subregion as whole.
Mr Satoshi Yamamoto, Project Manager, Tema Roundabout Project- Phase Two, said the project was at 60 per cent complete.
He said work was almost done with the project’s piers and abatement, which would provide structural support to the overall project.
Mr Yamamoto said the project would make it easier for the Tema Harbour to clear goods quickly, end traffic jam and improve trade integration and economic growth in the ECOWAS subregion.
The first phase of the project, funded with Japanese grant of $55.6 million, commenced on July 27, 2018 and was completed on April 2020.
GNA