2 MORE ROADS TO LINK MAMPONG (PAGE 21)

TWO roads in the Sekyere West and the newly created Sekyere Central Districts in the Ashanti Region are being constructed to serve as alternative routes to the main Kumasi–Asante Mampong road should there be any failure on some part of the highway, especially the stretch of the road passing through the Mampong scarp.
A stretch of the 50 kilometre Kumasi-Asante Mampong road passing through the Mampong scarp collapsed last year, creating a huge problem for motorists as well as people using and staying along the road.
The two roads are the 17-kilometre Nsuta- Oyoko road in the Sekyere Central District and the 13-kilometre Mampong-Boanim-Jamasi road in the Sekyere West District.
The roads, which are now under the supervision of the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA) are now in the formative stage, and would not be tarred immediately.
The main contractors undertaking the projects are Messrs Concourse (GH) Limited for the Nsuta–Oyoko road, and Joshob Construction Company Limited for the Mampong-Boanim-Jamasi road. They have 18 months to complete the projects.
During a visit to the project site, the Daily Graphic met the Road Area Manager of the GHA for Mampong, Mr Joseph Nkrumah and the Assistant Chief Government Surveyor of the GHA, Nana Nanabanyin Queesy Ninsin-Imbeah II, inspecting and directing work on the blasting of a rocky stretch of the Nsuta-Oyoko road at Asuafu, near Nsuta.
Mr Nkrumah explained that the two roads were being built to the formation stage where they would not put on bitumen, saying “this means we are not going to tar it immediately, tarring will follow later.”
He mentioned some other roads in the area currently under construction as the 8.3 kilometre Mampong-Nsuta road, including the Nsuta town roads, the 10-kilometre Kumawu-Kwamang road, the 13-kilometre Mampong-Kofiase road and the Mampong town roads.
Mr Nkrumah said about 80 per cent of work on the Mampong-Nsuta road was complete, while two kilometres of the road had been tarred from Kwamang to Kumawu.
He commended the various contractors working on the roads for their performance, especially Joshob Construction Company Limited.
He explained that Joshob Construction Company had never abandoned work as others had been doing.
The site foreman of Concourse (GH) Limited, Mr Kofi Owusu, explained that since the Nsuta-Oyoko road was narrow, the company had to do cutting and widening of the road which was delaying the work.
He said blasting of the rocky stretch of the road was almost complete.