200 Contractors train in pothole patching

The Ghana Highway Authority ( GHA ) in collaboration with the Koforidua Training Centre ( KTC ) in the Eastern Region has organised a two-day training workshop for 200 contractors and technical officers to enhance their skills and knowledge in pothole patching and other general road maintenance techniques.

The participants drawn from all parts of the country were equipped with the requisite knowledge and skills for them to undertake construction works.

The training was also to let the participants fully understand the techniques and concept of road maintenence that would improve the  performance of  participants to enable them to undertake pothole patching and other rehabilitation works to ensure quality of work and value for money. 

The training programme organised by the GHA and KTC, formed part of the authority’s initiative, which seeks to equip contractors with the requisite knowledge and skills for them to be ready for construction in the year 2020.

Value for money

Addressing the participants, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Maintenance, Mr Christian Nti, underscored the importance of the training, saying that contractors were supposed to build their confidence level with the required skills and knowledge to carry out construction work.

That, he said, would enable Ghanaian contractors to work very hard and also ensure that their work was of quality and gave value for money.

Mr Nti emphasised that there were more problems in the construction industry which were supposed to be tackled and addressed one after the other.

He said as part of the government’s desire to achieve value for money for the contractors, next year would be a year of construction and general maintenance and rehabilitations of the country’s major roads.

“We need to retool our hardworking contractors, re-train them, sharpen their skills so that they can deliver quality  work so that whatever money they spend on road maintenance will not be wasted. We also need to educate you the contractors on certain techniques and technicalities, teach you how to correctly patch potholes which will pass the test of time,” Mr Nti stated.

“We want to also train the untrained contractors in the construction industry for them to know the basic principles and techniques in the construction firm and to know how to use the knowledge gained to immediately undertake pothole patching and other general road maintenance activities next year,” Mr Nti added.

He said the GHA and KTC were ready to provide the necessary assistance to help the contractors to effect change in the manner they undertook pothole patching and other rehabilitation works.

Mr Nti urged the participants to take advantage of the training and build their capacities and skills using the best practices and correct methodology that would make them more relevant in the construction industry.

Timely training

For his part, the Eastern Regional Director of the KTC, Dr Charles Afotornu, indicated that the training of the participants was timely and important  because of the deteriorating nature of the county’s roads after several complaints from the people.

“We the KTC are training contractors, consultants, staff of the Ministry of Roads and Highways in all aspects of project management and how to correctly execute projects among others,” he said.

Dr Afotornu said the Minister of Roads and Highways had secured funding to construct a 60-bed hostel facility and a 150-capacity conference centre purposely for the training of personnel in the construction industry to ensure that the government achieved value for money.

The techniques the contractors acquired, Dr Afotornu explained, would encourage the participants to implement the knowledge acquired to improve their performance.

“We want to avoid shoddy works of some  contractors in Ghana, that is the main reason this Koforidua Training Centre was established. Our topmost priority for the centre is to train our contractors and other personnel so that at the end of it all it will change the negative work of some contractors,” Dr Afotornu added.

The Eastern Regional Director of Highways, Mr Charles Adebofour ,advised the contractors to take the training seriously because whatever they had learnt  should be implemented on the field and if they failed to implement it they would not be paid.

“We will even not measure your work because you have not used the right procedures and techniques. Whatever you do in the field, if it does not meet the right specifications you will not be paid,” Mr Adebofour cautioned.

Some of the participants who were later interviewed by the Daily Graphic expressed their gratitude to the organisers of the event, saying it would be beneficial to them.