Aowin Suaman people jubilate-Over road construction project

Story: Kwame Asiedu Marfo, Enchi
07/03/08

THE euphoria, cheers and jubilation of the chiefs and people of the Aowin Suaman District of the Western Region when President J.A. Kufuor cut the sod for the construction of the Asankragwa-Enchi road, indicated the importance people in the district attach to road construction.
Many people in the numerous towns and villages stood by the roadside to wave and cheer the President’s convoy to and from Enchi.
The 56.4-kilometre road has deteriorated to the extent that plying it during the rainy season is difficult, which has forced vehicles to instead use the Asankragwa-Samreboi road to Enchi, a much longer distance.
Even though the road plays a very important role in conveying cocoa to the Takoradi port, timber logs to the port and various sawmills as well as foodstuffs to the market centres, it has been neglected for a very long time.
During the rainy season, many articulated trucks loaded with bags of cocoa and cargo trucks conveying farm produce, are stuck in the mud, blocking the busy road completely.
It was, therefore, a great sigh of relief to the people in the area when the President broke the ground for the official commencement of the reconstruction work on the road.
The project involves the reconstruction of the 56.4-kilometre two-lane carriageway of bitumen-surfaced road from Asankragwa in the Wassa Amenfi West District to Enchi in the Aowin Suaman District.
It has a design life of 15 years for an equivalent standard axle load of 13 tonnes and a designed speed of 80 kilometres per hour for the highway.
The proposed improvement of the road will result in the increase in the pavement strength, traffic operations, safety of both motorised and non-motorised road users as well as the capacity at junctions.
The estimated GH¢24 million project, which is being executed by Messrs Top International Engineering Corporation (Ghana) Limited, is expected to be completed in three years. The project is being funded solely by the government.
President Kufuor noted that Western Region is the economic hub of the country as far as the production of cocoa and timber is concerned. He added that the discovery of oil in commercial quantities had also made the region more important economically.
He stressed that the government would continue to ensure the rapid development of the region.
President Kufuor said the current cocoa production of 700,000 tonnes was expected to hit 1,000,000 tonnes within the next two years.
The Minister of State at the Ministry of Transportation, Mr Godfrey Bayon Tangu, said when completed, the road would enhance the economic and social conditions of the people, stressing that it would also facilitate the transportation of the nation’s main cash crop, cocoa, for which the Western Region is the major producer.
He said the export of other commodities for which the region was well noted such as lumber would also be enhanced.
Mr Tangu further stated that the completion of the project would result in a significant reduction in travel time from about two-and-a-half hours to one hour as well as vehicle operating cost and thereby promote economic activity in the project area.
“It is therefore anticipated that the expected increase in economic activity in agricultural production and the marketing of agricultural produce will help to generate employment within the two districts,’’ he said.
Mr Tangu said further that the perennial problem of heavy trucks getting stuck in the mud or breaking down on the road whenever there was even a slight rain, would be over upon completion of the project.
The minister said the completion of the road would also contribute to the government’s long- term goal of rehabilitating the national route 12 in order to facilitate increased trade with its northern sub–regional neighbours of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
He hinted motorists and travellers using the road that when construction works were in full swing, they would experience some inconveniences on the road.
Mr Tangu, therefore, appealed to motorists, people who live along the road corridor and other stakeholders to exercise caution and follow safety measures that the contractor would put in place during the construction period.
The minister assured motorists as well as the general public that “we will ensure that the necessary environmental, safety and traffic management measures are taken into consideration to minimise the expected inconveniences during the construction stage of the road.’’
Mr Tangu reiterated the commitment of the Ministry of Transportation and its agencies to ensure that all planned as well as approved road programmes were implemented to enable the government to achieve its objective of poverty reduction and wealth creation.