The Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) has left the road infrastructure with dangerous potholes.
Potholes are a perennial problem. They are dangerous to road users, and the damage they cause to vehicles may go beyond repairs.
The 19-kilometre highway is currently in a deplorable state as it is covered with deep potholes and road markings have been wiped off by the thousands of vehicles that ply the roads every day.
The state of the Accra-Tema motorway can be described as criminal negligence of the highest order on the part of those responsible for its maintenance.
The motorway has deteriorated and is now a death trap with high traffic growth and encroachment.
On Monday, September 27, 2021, the Mobile Maintenance Unit of the highway authority went to the motorway to fix the potholes.
But one may ask how long will the government continue to patch the potholes instead of expanding the road network.
Earlier, the Ministry of Roads and Highways announced that the government has awarded the contract for the expansion of the motorway to a South African firm, Mota – Engil valued at $570m which the Members of Parliament of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are demanding the revocation.
The deal is for the expansion of the Accra-Tema Motorway into both three-lane and two-lane stretches.
It has been reported that the Highway Authority makes over GH¢8,000 daily at the toll booths on the Accra-Tema motorway but persistently fails to rehabilitate the deplorable nature of the motorway.
The road tolls were to see to the periodic and routine maintenance of the roads, which include rehabilitation, upgrading, road safety activities, and other road projects to be carried out by the highway authority but nothing has been seen or heard.
The number of potholes found on the motorway has been the result of many of the accidents that have occurred on the highway.
A visit by Kojo Emmanuel to the motorway discovered that most of the bridges on the motorway are in bad shapes thereby exposing motorists and pedestrians to danger especially the Adjei Kojo under-bridge and the Kanewu junction on the motorway which has turned into a 'trotro' road for commercial vehicles forgetting that it's a highway.
Pulse Editor's Opinion is the opinion of an editor of Pulse. It does not represent the opinion of the organization Pulse.