Road contractors in U/E ready to repair damaged roads and bridges

Bolgatanga, Oct. 5, GNA- Road Contractors in the Upper East Region on Thursday said they were well prepared to construct or rehabilitate destroyed roads, bridges and culverts, caused by the recent flood. Mr. Dauda Hakim, Secretary of the Association of Road Contractors (ASROC) in the Region said they were well equipped and ready to take up the task.

Mr Hakim said this at the close of a five-day workshop on construction equipment operations organised for Road Contractors. The workshop was meant to expose the contractors to the right ways of handling the equipment they use in their work. They were taught the structure and functions of the different parts of machines, breaking new machines, safety measures, rules for safe starting and prevention of problems.

The contractors learnt to take simple precautions and how to do daily checks on their machines. Mr Hakim expressed his concern at the dwindling number of machine operators, saying the few who knew the work were now aging. He appealed to the Ghana Education Service to consider including heavy machine operation in the curriculum of vocational and technical institutions to enable more young people to learn the trade. Mr Abdulai Kodjo, Zonal Workshop Manager of the Department of Highways in Tamale, who facilitated the workshop, noted that the ideal situation would be for every machine operator to know how to handle the machine, identify faults and make simple repairs when necessary.