Work begins on Adenta footbridges today

Work is expected to officially begin today on the six abandoned footbridges on the Madina-Adenta stretch of the N4 Highway, DAILY GUIDE has gathered.

The six contractors were taken to the sites yesterday by officials of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA).

They were led by the Deputy Chief Executive of GHA in charge of Development, Baba Kassim.

The visit was to enable GHA to officially hand over the various sites to the contractors, some of whom are already mobilizing to start work today.

Sources say the contractors have been given up to four months to complete the projects.

But some of them say they will complete the footbridges within two months to ensure safety of the pedestrians on the highway that has so far claimed over 20 lives.

It became necessary to commence work on the footbridges and repair streetlights, traffic lights on that stretch of the highway following violent protests by residents along the Madina-Adenta Highway occasioned by the tragic death of a female student of West Africa Secondary School (WASS), who was killed on Thursday, November 8, 2018, by a speeding taxi.

The death of the student, who attempted to cross the road after school last Thursday, sparked violent protests by residents along the Madina-Adenta stretch of the highway that links Aburi to Accra. Residents, mostly the youth, set fire to old car tyres to block the busy road to express their anger over the death of the student.

The residents yesterday took part in what they termed ‘peace walk’ to drum home their grievances, giving the government 10 days to show signs of fulfilling the promise of completing the footbridges.

Owing to the protests, government promised to immediately begin work on the footbridges in order to make movement for pedestrians in the area safe.

The move is part of comprehensive work plan to fix Ghana’s broken infrastructure. The comprehensive programme is to be introduced after the presentation of 2019 Budget Statement to Parliament this week.