Contract to halt fall of boulders from Akuapem Ridge : To be awarded in March
Work to halt the fall of boulders onto the Aburi-Accra road on the Akuapem Ridge is to be awarded by March this year, a Deputy Chief Executive of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), Alhaji Kassim Nuhu, has said.
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He told the Daily Graphic that three companies had so far expressed interest in executing the project and that a lot of progress had been made towards awarding the contract.
According to him, the GHA evaluation team had completed the assessment of the bids received and was in the process of forwarding them to the Central Tender Board for the contract to be awarded.
Last year, the GHA announced that the contract to fix the fall of boulders from the cliff on the curvy Aburi section of the Accra-Aburi road would be awarded at the end of June 2014.
It was further postponed to October 2014.
Alhaji Nuhu explained that the delay in awarding the contract was due to the fact that the opening of the tenders took more time than had earlier been anticipated because the work plan had to be reviewed.
According to him, controlling the falling boulders was specialised work which required careful considerations.
"It is important that we take precaution to ensure that the contractor who got the job moves in to fix the problem once and for all," he stated.
The Accra-Aburi road, which also leads to the Peduase Lodge, is one of the two major routes connecting the Greater Accra Region to the Eastern Region.
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It is also about the only short route from Accra to the Aburi Botanical Gardens, which attracts a number of tourists daily.
Background
Imminent disaster is lurking on the Accra-Aburi road, as boulders perch precariously on one another, ready to fall, at the least disturbance, onto the Accra-bound section of the road at Peduase.
Last year, the timely intervention of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) prevented what could have resulted in a tragic situation when the rocks began to fall unhindered onto the road.
After the contractors had cut through the mountainous stretch during the reconstruction of the road about seven years ago, the boulders acted as a retaining wall.
Unfortunately, they have now become a source of concern to motorists.
Visit
During a visit to the site, it was realised that the rocks continued to fall unhindered, and regularly too. It was also observed that quite a number of motorists preferred moving in the inner lane, and quickly too.
Human activities such as stone mining, building on the cliff, as well as the reconstruction of the road, are said to have resulted in the current weakness in the rock formation.
Writer’s email: naa.bentil@graphic.com.gh