Mr Kwabena Bempong, Resident Engineer for the Pokuase Interchange project, has cautioned the public not to erect billboards on and around the interchange to enable visibility of road signs.
The interchange was fully opened to traffic on Sunday, July 4, 2021 following its successful completion early this month.
The Resident Engineer said: “Bill boards cannot be accommodated either on the bridge or the approaches to the bridge because once that is done there is a likelihood that some of these signs will be blocked.”
Speaking to the media during an inspection tour by officials from the Ministry of Roads and Highways and the Ghana Highway Authority on Wednesday, ahead of its commissioning on Friday July 9, 2021, Mr Bempong said such an act could pose a threat to motorists and pedestrians using the interchange.
Already, two road accidents have been recorded since the interchange was fully opened to traffic on Sunday.
One person was said to have been knocked down by a vehicle while crossing from one end of the interchange to the other on Tuesday, while two vehicles with registration numbers; GX 268-17 and GE 2898-29 were involved in a head-on collision on another section on Wednesday.
The four-tier Pokuase Interchange commenced in April 2018 and was initially expected to be completed in October 2020, but that was changed to March 2021.
The government, in May 2021, said the project would be completed in the first week of July 2021.
Estimated at a cost of $94.8 million, the project comprised a five-kilometre Awoshie-Pokuase road, two-kilometre Accra-Nsawam road, two-kilometre Kwabenya road and 10 kilometres of local roads to improve traffic flow in parts of Accra.
It was jointly financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Government, as part of a comprehensive integrated urban transportation system to improve urban mobility.
On November 5, 2020, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo commissioned the first phase of the project.
Mr Bempong said work on the interchange was complete, however, it was putting finishing touches such as footbridges, cleaning up of the roads to allow for smooth ride and planting of some trees to green and beautify the interchange.
“We have currently opened the interchange to traffic so we are currently on approach to the fourth-tier which was opened on Sunday. All the other legs have been opened, our footbridges are almost complete, the concrete works have been done left with few things such as the hand rails for it to be completed but we are hoping that by Friday this will also be done.
“We provided over 20 kilometres of walkways to ensure that pedestrians do not and I must repeat, do not use any part of the bridges or the interchange. They have to be at the lowest tier and we made it contiguous so that if you are from Kwabenya, you walk on the side road or the walkway and that will take you all the way to a point that you can cross for instance the Accra-Kumasi road via the footbridge,” he said.
He urged motorists to follow the various directional and advanced directional signs provided to navigate through the interchange.
The Resident Engineer also cautioned pedestrians to desist from crossing the interchange from unauthorised points to reduce pedestrian casualties on the road and protect lives.
