Somewhere last year, we wrote a series of editorials on how to deal with the traffic menace on the Accra-Kasoa road. In one of those editorials, we suggested that the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA) should consider the possibility of constructing alternative routes for motorists to take pressure off the main road.
We admitted that there is a link road from Kasoa through Ashalaja to Amasaman. This particular road was constructed to help ease the pressure on commuters from the Winneba and Kasoa enclaves to Nsawam and beyond the hustle of going through Mallam Junction before joining the Accra-Nsawam road.
Unfortunately, joining the main Nsawam road when using this corridor is another nightmare. Because the section from Ashalaja to Amasaman Divisional Police Headquarters is in a poor state, heavy traffic is often built up there, thus defeating the purpose for constructing the by-pass.
It is over a year now since we raised the issue, but nothing concrete has been done on the road.
We are, however, not blaming the authorities, because road construction is a capital intensive project, and looking at the current state of the economy, it will be very difficult for the government to raise resources to tackle all the problems in the road sector.
This development, in our view, does not however mean that we should stop planning ahead of time.
The Accra-Kasoa road we are referencing is one of the major roads that link our national capital to all parts of the country and beyond. Apart from this, the development of Accra has moved to that corridor, with thousands, if not millions, of buildings springing in the area, with its attendant population explosion.
As a matter of fact, within the next ten to fifteen years, Accra will join Winneba to become one cosmopolitan area. This means the current traffic nightmare on the Cape-Coast road will become even worse. The only way to deal with the anticipated problem is to, therefore, start planning now.
President Kufuor’s government earlier saw this problem and decided to expand the road from Accra to Kasoa.
Unfortunately, the sheer volume of traffic on that corridor has rendered the expansion useless. We are not traffic experts, but from a lay man’s perspective, it is easy to deduce that the traffic build-up is being caused by the various intersections on the road.
If the GHA agrees with us on this score, then the Authority must advise the government to start planning on how to source funding to construct interchanges on all these intersections.
This will obviously come at a great cost to the tax payer, but with proper planning ahead of time, we can surmount the challenge.
In our opinion, the continued expansion of the road will not help solve the traffic problem if we all admit that the various intersections are the cause of the problem.
However, the government, through the GHA, can also look at the possibility of constructing a flyover all the way from Mallam Junction to Kasoa to take traffic going straight to Winneba and Cape Coast.
Again, we admit that these are all capital intensive projects for a developing country like ours to execute, but we insist that with proper planning it could be done in phases, and within the next fifteen years, we can bring closure to the traffic menace.
The Accra-Kasoa road contributes significantly to the economy of our national capital. This, therefore, places the huge responsibility on the government to find the way and means to address the traffic conundrum. The Chronicle is, therefore, hopeful that the suggestions we have made will be looked at in the best interests of our dear country.
