Govt plans interchange on Accra-Tema Motorway

Page 47, Feb 11, 2008
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE government will in the near future construct an interchange on the Accra-Tema Motorway to help in redistribute traffic on the Spintex Road onto the motorway.
The Minister of State at the Ministry of Transportation, Mr Geofrey Bayon Tangu, who made this known, said that the plan for the construction of the interchange was currently at the tender evaluation stage.
He made the disclosure in Parliament on Wednesday when he appeared before the House to answer an urgent question posed by the Member of Parliament for Ayawaso East, Dr Mustapha Ahmed.
The MP had asked the minister about plans the ministry had put in place to resolve the traffic congestion that had arisen as a result of the opening of the Accra Shopping Mall at the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange.
Mr Tangu said a number of factors, including lack of alternative routes in the eastern corridor of Accra, accounted for the traffic congestion at the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange.
He said the ongoing constructional works on the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange-Adenta road had also contributed to the traffic congestion in the area.
“The attribution of traffic congestion on the Spintex Road to the opening of the Accra Shopping Mall is minimal except for the rush traffic that was generated during the first few days of the formal opening of the mall,” he said.
Mr Tangu explained that currently some alternative solutions were being provided in the form of widening the La-Teshie Road from the Military Academy Training School (MATS) to link up with the Teshie Link.
The minister said the widening of the road would provide space for additional vehicles, adding that sections of the Teshie Link were under construction in addition to the construction of the railbridge over the rail line on the link.
Mr Tangu said that in future all the roads including the Teshie Link, Spintex Road, Burma Camp Road and the Baatsona Highway within the Eastern corridor, which had already been designed, would be developed.
He expressed the hope that the development of those roads would greatly improve the traffic distribution within the Eastern corridor and reduce congestion on the Spintex Road.