Accra-Tema motorway: Still a death Trap

Towards the run up to Election 2000, a passenger mini-bus, speeding from nowhere, jumped into the Accra-Tema Motorway around the Ashaiman end of the road, compelling the convoy of former President Jerry John Rawlings, then returning home from a trip, to make desperate but futile manouevers that ultimately led to the death of a couple of his guards.

Some five years on, after the ex-President?s dance with death, ?The Chronicle? newspaper can report that the problem of unapproved routes, through which anxious drivers sneak onto the motorway and create serious traffic problems, has worsened rather than reduced.

The Chronicle, at the last count, has identified thirty-three of such hastily contrived routes right from the Tetteh Quarshie end of the motorway to the Tema-Ashaiman end, in spite of attempts by estate developing companies to discourage the trend by creating culverts along those portions of the routes used by the ?marauding motorists?.

One resident told The Chronicle that the spate of accidents along the route has so worsened that ?developers and residents are getting worried about the trend, even though the compulsion to break the law appears to be outweighing the urge to be patriotic for obvious reasons.?

The paper was told of the chilling case of a schoolgirl who was knocked down to her death, close to one of those unapproved routes.

?Commuting to and from work from these locations is a daily headache, especially during the morning and evening rush hours, and you can imagine the stress and strain those of us living in these parts of the city normally go through,? Mrs. Irene Opoku, a caterer lamented.

In spite of the friendly and quiet environment, which irresistibly attracts the elite and the bourgeois, including professional footballers, top-notch politicians and business executives, there is the huge problem of drainage in those communities, compelling motorists to keep exploring more of such unapproved routes, especially with the onset of the rains.

A highly placed source from the Ministry of Finance told the paper that, funds for providing service routes to and from the area to prevent the dangerous trend had been unused since 2003.

The figure mentioned was ?8bn. The delay has been caused by the politics of choosing which contractor to handle the project. But a check with Urban Roads chief, Hesse, told a different story.

?We admit there is a problem there. Unfortunately, as far as I am aware, no funds have as yet been released to enable the project take off.?

The MP for Krowor (Nungua) and Deputy Minister for Roads and Transport, Emmanuel Adjei Boye, denied monies had been released or that some unhealthy politics was going into the deal.

?We understand the problem, and we know of a contractor prepared to help in the time being, but I can assure you we will put the service roads in place when the money becomes available. As at now, the money is simply not ready.? The Minister was not ready to commit himself to a time frame.

After the Rawlings? brush with death five years ago, assurances came from the Ministry of Roads and Highways to the effect that all unapproved routes to and from the communities along the motorway would be blocked after the provision of service or parallel routes.

Trenches were therefore dug at prescribed sites as a signal that the problem was to be addressed permanently. But that was all!