You are not likely to travel on any road in Ghana without encountering a pothole. The roads that are built these days cannot stand the test of time, as they start deteriorating soon after they are handed over to the government.
This baffles many Ghanaians as to which criteria or consideration that goes into the inspection process to ensure that the terms are met, regarding quality and durability, before the roads are finally handed over to the Government.
A rumour which still remains a rumour among the general populace is that authorities demand 10 per cent payment, before awarding any contract, so it stands to reason that the roads would not be built well.
Newly constructed road such as Kankyakura- Gbadago Road in the Volta Region and the one that cuts through Kokrobite, Tuba, Nyanyano, Kakraba to Sapato Junction on the Accra Cape Coast road have all developed potholes in few months after being commissioned by the government.
According to Joy news, at least nine potholes and developing potholes could be found on the Dodo Pepeso-Nkwanta road built at a cost of €25.9 million. This is another newly constructed road in the country.
The deplorable nature of roads in the country is hampering business activities and making life unbearable for residents. Motorists and drivers have complained about the effects the bad nature of roads is having on their vehicles which break down often and how they are forced to make frequent trips to mechanics.
“Potholes are the lowly annoyance that in fact cause billions of dollars in vehicle damages and a large portion of highway deaths,” Jones Mensah, a registered driver with Kasoa GPRTU has stated
Potholes are caused when water penetrates tiny cracks in the road – cracks that are usually caused by traffic. When this water freezes, it expands, widening the cracks. When it melts, traffic thumps down on the space vacated by the ice and smashes new craters into the road surface. And these holes can be a nightmare for road-users.
The worst of it all are the potholes on the Tema Motorway. The first President of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, bequeathed to this country so many things; one of such monuments is the Tema Motorway, which was built with the future in mind.
Unfortunately, as it is with everything on earth, the motorway is deteriorating at a fast rate with the passage of time and nobody seems to care, at least those whose duty it is to ensure that the road is maintained have gone to sleep.
The Motorway, over the years has served its purpose and continues to do so, by not only being the most durable, safe and flagship road we have in this country, but it has also been a source of revenue for the State, through the tolls collected every day.
Despite the various kinds of vehicles that ply the Accra-Tema motorway and the huge funds it generates daily, the over 50 years old road is yet to benefit from its earnings. The deplorable motorway is the only road network in Ghana that is used by at least 30,000 vehicles per day, the Head of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Advisory Unit, Ekow Coleman, told Business Day in an interview in Accra in March 2014.
“So far, it is only the Accra-Tema motorway which gives those numbers. This means that it is the only project which is self-financing,” he pointed out.
There are three categories of vehicles that ply the motorway namely commercial vehicles (trotro), private vehicles) and big trucks. The motorway has 12 toll booths. Commercial vehicles (trotro) and 4x4s are charged GH₵ 1.00, while big trucks are charged GH₵ 2.00.
If 30,000 vehicles use the motorway in a day, and assuming each vehicle is charged one cedi per trip, the road would be raking in GH₵ 30,000 in a day, GH₵ 210,000 in a week, GH₵ 840,000 in a month and GH₵ 10,080,000 in a year.
In 2013, it was reported that the Ghana Highway Authority raked in GH₵36000 daily from the Tema motorway. Juxtaposing the huge amounts made daily from the motorway then, the report decried the road’s deplorable state and accused some toll collectors of sitting on the cash which is expected to be used to rehabilitate the deploring road. Almost a year after the report, the state of the Accra-Tema motorway is still deplorable as it is yet to see any massive rehabilitation which will give it the facelift and status it had in its hay days.
The railway is the most efficient way of hauling heavy tonnage over long distances, but for the past 30 years the railway system has been a shambles. So heavy tonnage must move by road in articulated vehicles that rip up roads allergic to rain.
So the question is who is to be blamed for the construction of inferior road? Should it be the Minister of Roads or the contractor? Time will definitely tell.
