Mr Kwasi Amoako Attah, Minister of Roads and Highways, says vehicles which exceed the legal height limit of 4.5 metres will, in the coming months, be sanctioned and denied access to the Accra-Tema Motorway.This was to allow for the seamless construction of about 22 metres bridge over the Tema Motorway which is expected to begin in May this year.
The construction which formed part of the Flyover project from the Flowerpot roundabout has a duration period of about four to five months.
The Minister said he would be seeking the assistance of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to strictly enforce the height limit of trucks on the motorway.
He has therefore urged the Messrs China Railway No.5 Engineering Ghana Limited contractors and Doeke Consult Limited, the Supervising Consultant not to relent in having culprits turned away and dealt with for flouting the law, adding that “don’t treat any driver who flouts the law with kid’s gloves.”
Mr Amoako-Attah also urged the contractors to take proactive steps to ensure that the traffic situation on the motor way was well managed during the construction to reduce loss of productive time in traffic.
Mr Emmanuel Dogbotse, the Resident Engineer, said the engineers were working hard to minimise the impact of the construction on economic activities, adding that “we will try to work day and night so that the time for construction can be reduced from four and half to maybe three months.”
“We have four stages of traffic control and seven stages of construction. In our first traffic control, we will maintain the original lanes and we will do stage one construction.
“In the next traffic control, we will do stage two and stage construction and we will put the motor way road through the median of the motorway. We will still maintain our two lanes in two lanes out,” he said.
He indicated that the contractors, would be mounting gentries on each side of the road to prevent vehicles with heights exceeding the legal limits from passing through the construction site.
“The law says 4.5 but most of the truck on the motor way are more than 4.5 metres but we will allow up to 4.8 because our clear height limit is 5.2 metres,” he said.
The flyover project consists of one mainline bridge of 802 metres, two ramp bridges, four auxiliary roads of 2.5 kilometres and ancillary works.
It will involve creating an access route from the Motorway to the Boundary Road roundabout and an exit into the Cantonments from the Giffard Road interchange.
The project which originally started in March 2017 has a revised completion date of Dec 31, 2023, from March 16 2019 and an intended final take over period of December 31 2024.
The revised contract sum for the project is GHS284.6 million according to the Ministry.
By Issah Mohammed, GNA
GNA