He said the government would, in the next two weeks, release the last instalment of money owed road contractors to boost their capacity to meet their project timelines.

“This year is a critical year for us as a government because we declared that this is a year of roads. We are ready to support contractors with what they need to do their work and I urge all of them to work hard to complete their projects.

“Even if it means they need to start working day and night, they should do so because it is done in other jurisdictions,” he said.

Tour

The minister made the call during an inspection tour of some road projects in the Greater Accra and the Eastern regions last Wednesday.

He was joined on the tour by officials of the ministry and the Ghana Highway Authority.

The team inspected ongoing work at the Tema Motorway Interchange, the 7.5-km dual carriage Teshie Link Road, the Pokuase Interchange and the 31.7-km Kwafokrom-Apedwa road on the Accra-Kumasi highway in the Eastern Region.

Progress of work

At all the project sites visited, work was going on briskly, while the contractors gave assurances that they would deliver the projects on schedule.

For instance, at the Tema Motorway Interchange, the Manager of Shimizu-Dai Nippon JV, the construction firm, Mr Yujin Uemura, said the project was 91 per cent complete.

The site manager of the Teshie Link Road project, which is being constructed by GS International Limited, Mr Iddrisu Mandeya, also said the project was 50 per cent complete.

The Pokuase Interchange was 60 per cent complete, according to the Resident Engineer of Associated Consultants Limited, Mr Kwabena Bempong.

Diligence

Mr Amoako-Atta expressed satisfaction with the extent of work done by the various contractors and assured them that the government would release outstanding funds to them to complete the projects.

He stressed that the government would not countenance any sluggishness on the part of contractors, given that this year had been declared a year of roads.

The minister cautioned them to put in place systems that would help eliminate flooding after the projects had been completed and handed over.

“We have instances in this country when road projects are completed and handed over, but anytime it rains some of them get flooded. Under this government, we want to ensure that no project suffers flooding after it has been handed over, so we are saying that contractors need to be proactive and deal with the challenge,” he stressed.

Dust suppression

Mr Amoako-Atta urged the contractors to put in place dust-suppression mechanisms to reduce the impact of dust on the health of people in the project areas.

For instance, he asked the contractor undertaking the Teshie Link Road to take steps to reduce dust around the LEKMA Hospital as a matter of priority.

Mr Mandeya gave an assurance that the LEKMA section of the project would be worked on within three weeks.

“We are in consultation with the management of the hospital to create an access road to the facility while we work on that portion. We wanted to do so in December 2019 but they pleaded with us to leave that portion until after Christmas,” he said.