First President of Ghana Dr. Kwame Nkrumah inaugurated the first route of the Accra-Tema Motorway.
On 30 November 1965, he inaugurated the first extension of the Accra-Tema Motorway.
Pulse.com.gh’s visit to the motorway shows the dilapidated condition of the 56-year-old motorway, with potholes, patches of bitumen, erosion from spilled concrete and hard lumps still causing danger and inconvenience to drivers and commuters. This is on a daily basis.
The PULSE team found that most of the bridges on the motorway are in bad condition, putting motorists and pedestrians at risk, especially the Adje Kojo under-bridge and Kanevu Junction of the motorway which has become a ‘trotro’ road for commercial vehicles. It forgets that it is a highway.
The 19 km highway is currently in a deplorable condition, covered with deep potholes and road markings destroyed by thousands of vehicles plying the road.
The Accra-Tema Motorway is one of the major roads that motorists always use to lack repair works.
The condition of the motorway can be described as criminal negligence of the highest order on the part of those responsible for its maintenance.
Also, the recent creation of illegal access roads by suspected drivers to join the Accra-Tema highway has added to the vehicular traffic congestion.
More than 25 illegal roads connecting the 19 km motorway have been created.
The starting point of these illegal routes starts at Adje Kojo Underbridge, Abbatoir, Community 18 Extension, a breeding ground for illegal diversions by motorists through KICC, Coca-Cola, Trassaco, Manet and Tollbooth areas. .
Many of these illegal diversions have led to severe carnage on the highway, especially at the Adje Kojo underbridge exit route which has now become a death trap.
It is no wonder that many drivers have gained notoriety for various unforgivable offenses on the motorway.
The current and previous governments have neglected the maintenance of the motorway.
In June this year, the Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoko-Attah, disclosed that the 19-kilometer highway connecting Accra would be widened to a 10-lane highway to ease traffic.
He said the expansion of the motorway shows the government’s commitment to invest in the country’s road network.
Addressing Parliament on Friday, June 17, 2022, Amoco-Attah said, “The future program is to expand the existing motorway to 10-lane.
“It includes a freeway, access control, three urban highways and several footbridges for pedestrian crossings.”
It has been almost six months since Amoako-Attah promised and promised the nation the expansion but Ghanaians are asking when the expansion of the miserable 56-year-old Accra-Tema expressway into 10-lane will commence.
Promises from 2009 to 2023
In 2009, the former Roads and Highways Minister under late President John Evans Atta Mills promised to expand the Motorway into a six-lane highway.
The government under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has promised since 2012, former Minister of Roads and Highways Joe Gidisu disclosed that the Tema Motorway would see massive expansion to ease traffic under the John Mahama administration but nothing happened. .
Gidisu said: “There will be a three-lane carriageway from Teema Circle to Shai Hills.”
Joe Gidisu’s promise failed under the NDC government.
In 2015, former Finance Minister, Seth Terkpar assured Ghanaians that plans were underway to build roads from Tema port to the motorway.
Under the current government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the President’s appointees promise Ghanaians a new path of hope.
Expanding the motorway to six lanes is a 30-month project that Kwasi Amoko-Attah promised but nothing has been heard or seen.
In 2018, former Deputy Minister of Roads and Transport Anthony Carbo hinted that the government would widen the road to six lanes.
Karbo hinted that the government would review the current tolls being collected on the Tema Motorway.
Speaking to Accra-based Class FM, he said, “There is a plan to widen the Accra-Tema motorway into a six-lane highway.”
Later, the government’s inability to repair the Karbo Tema Motorway was attributed to lack of funds.
On Friday, January 25, 2019, Amoco-Atta once again promised that the four-lane Tema Motorway would be widened.
Also, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said that work on the Accra-Tema Motorway Expansion Project is expected to start in early 2023.
This follows the government’s decision to procure the 27.7 kilometer project through the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) under a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement.
Ofori-Atta, who presented the 2023 budget and government’s economic policy to Parliament on November 24, 2022, said a PPP concession agreement supported by an appropriate toll system would be presented to Parliament for approval to facilitate its implementation.
Kojo Emmanuel and other Ghanaians who travel the road want to know when work will begin on the 58-year-old Accra-Tema expressway, which is now a death trap for commuters.
