Constant gridlock in Swedru: Drivers appeal for bridge to be rebuilt
Motorists in Agona Swedru and its environs are reeling from intense traffic following the destruction of the steel bridge on the Akora river.
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The traffic starts building up as early as 6 a.m. and gets worse during the day, with motorists from Winneba, Bawjiase, Aboso and Oda getting caught up in the gridlock.
Currently, all motorists who have to drive through Swedru to their various destinations suffer the frustration of staying in traffic for hours.
Frustration
Frustrated drivers, particularly commercial drivers, who claim they find it difficult to make their daily sales, said most passengers now preferred to walk.
“Some of the passengers cannot stand the pressure and the time wasting caused by the traffic jams,” Mr Kwame Danso, a taxi driver, told the Daily Graphic.
Another taxi driver, Mr Kweku Amoh, said the situation had affected taxi drivers in particular because the commonest means of transportation in the town was the taxi.
He, therefore, appealed to the government to ensure that the bridge was reconstructed as early as practicable to help bring business and economic activities in the town back to normalcy.
District Chief Executive
When reached for his reaction, the Agona West Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Samuel Oppong, shared in the frustration of the drivers and said in the interim the assembly had created an alternative route at Otabilkrom through Mahodwe to the central business district of Swedru.
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He said the assembly, in collaboration with the Ghana Police Service, had also deployed policemen at vantage points to direct traffic in the town.
Mr Oppong said a stakeholders’ meeting was to be organised to discuss the reconstruction of the collapsed bridge.
According to him, the entire bridge would be dismantled within two weeks to enable the contractor who was dredging the river prior to the destruction of the bridge to remove all the rocks under it to enable the river to flow well.
He dispelled the rumour in town that the project was for the purpose of mining gold in the river.
Background
On Sunday, February 9, 2014, the steel bridge on the River Akora was destroyed as a result of a dynamite blast by the contractor.
That incident cut off one part of Swedru from the other and that has since negatively affected business and economic activities in the town.