Inauguration of Asafo market interchange postponed

Kumasi, June 29, GNA- The official inauguration of the Adum-Asafo market interchange in Kumasi by President John Agyekum Kufuor on Friday, June 30, could not come on as planned due to ongoing work on some portions of the project.

Workers of Sonitra Construction who are executing the asphalting works were on site as well as the other contractors, but the earth levelling and compacting works being executed by Sarroch Gelfi, the original contractors of the interchange was not yet complete due to the heavy rains being experienced in the metropolis of late.

Mr Magnus Opare-Asamoah, Deputy Minister for Transportation who was on site on Thursday to inspect the progress of work for the commissioning, told newsmen that the inauguration would not come off as scheduled and hoped that work on the job would be executed within four weeks. He observed that the idea of sub-contracting of the project has helped to accelerate the rate of work.

The contractors involved are Impact Technologies for the street lighting, Facol-Roads for Traffic Light; Mikadu Construction has been awarded the guide rails and Sonitra Construction for the asphalting. Mr Opare-Asamoah, who expressed his appreciation of work so far done, called on the contractors to work hard to complete the project to ease the congestion in the area.

Mr Owusu Sekyere Antwi, Site Engineer, said 81 poles have been erected for the streetlights, which, he said was enough for lighting the whole area.

He said the contractor working on the guide rails had already fixed the hand railings and was working on the crush barriers. Mr Samuel Karmel, Supervisor of the asphalt works, expressed concern about the constant rains and prayed that it would cease for them to complete the project on schedule. He said but for the rains they would have completed the work by now because asphalting was not a problem since they have enough materials to work with.