Asphaltic overlay is to protect road investments - Dr Awolu
The asphaltic overlay of streets in selected regional capitals, including Accra, is to protect investments that have been made in existing infrastructure, the Director of the Department of Urban Roads (DUR), Dr Abass Awolu, has said.
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He explained that "the overlay is to protect the huge investment the government has made over the years in road infrastructure and move some of the paved roads in fair and poor conditions to good. It is a maintenance activity and we need to accord it the much-needed attention".
According to him, the projects were meant for only roads that had already been surface-dressed but which were showing signs of aging.
“The roads, after construction, have undergone some distress over time and it’s necessary to give them a new lease of life to enable them to continue to serve us,” Dr Abass indicated.
The director, who was speaking in an interview with the Daily Graphic, further explained that “our maintenance regime requires that we maintain these roads promptly.
However, we have over the years carried along a huge maintenance backlog and the asphalt overlay programme, together with other maintenance activities like resealing and resurfacing, are meant to help us address these challenges".
Road network
Currently, the country has a total urban road network of 14,500 kilometres. Out of this, almost 6,000km is within the Greater Accra Region, out of which 2,980km is paved.
The condition of the paved road network in Accra is 55 per cent good, 12 per cent fair and 23 per cent poor.
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Surface-dressed roads, if well maintained, a expected to last at least seven years, while asphalt could last about 12 years, he stated.
Funding
In all, 276km of surface-dressed roads in the capital are being asphalted under the Accra Streets Project. Under it, 76km is being worked on with a facility from the Brazilian Government, while 200km is being funded by the government.
Beneficiary roads include those that carry a fair amount of traffic and have good pavements to carry the asphalt and existing roads that connect to important facilities such as hospitals, markets and schools.
Greater Accra streets
The Accra Streets Project started last year with the asphalt overlay of some roads at Accra Newtown, Alajo, East Legon, Labone, Adabraka, Asylum Down and Tema.
This year, the DUR is targeting roads in Ga Mashie, Korle-Gonno, Lartebiokoshie, Chorkor, Dansoman, Sabon Zongo, Town Council Line, Akweteman, Madina, Adenta, Ashale Botwe, Dome, Haatso and La.
In Tema, an additional 91km of surface dressed roads will be tackled.
Other beneficiary areas are Ningo, Prampram, Kpone Katamanso, Ashaiman, Nungua and Teshie.
Dr Awolu said the programme was being implemented in other regional capitals.
In Sekondi-Takoradi, for instance, 50km of roads had already been asphalted and an additional 30km was being undertaken as Phase III of the programme, he said.
Other regions
In the Ashanti Region, 100km of roads in Kumasi are to be asphalted, including those in Ejisu and Obuasi.
In the Central Region, 40km of roads will be asphalted in Cape Coast and Elmina.
Ho, Keta and Hohoe in the Volta Region and Koforidua, Suhum and Somanya in the Eastern Region are also to benefit from the programme.
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Tamale in the Northern Region and Dormaa and Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo will also benefit.
The other beneficiary capital towns are Bolgatanga and Wa in the Upper East and Upper West regions.
Contractors
According to Dr Awolu, the overlay programme was also designed to boost the local construction sector, since majority of the contractors executing the works were Ghanaians.
“About 90 per cent of the overlay programme is being undertaken by Ghanaian contractors, unlike on previous occasions when asphalt plants were owned by only foreign firms,” he stated.
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He said in addition to the overlay programme, the DUR would undertake the resealing of 300km of roads throughout the country.
“This is necessary to help address the potholey situation on our roads,” he said.