As the sun peeks over the horizon, commuters traverse the 19-kilometre stretch of road that links the Harbour City of Tema to Accra, a reminder of the grand design of Kwame Nkrumah, the country’s first president, linking major towns and cities.
After 56 years of use, the Accra-Tema Motorway has outlived its purpose but remains the only one in the country that is serving the growing population of commuters and transit trucks transporting goods from the Tema port to countries like Burkina Faso and Mali.
Indeed, it is sad, and a testament of our collective failure as a country that the motorway has deteriorated beyond recognition, with deep potholes, some of which have been patched with bitumen, eroded with time and the elements, leaving the free lane in a dangerous state.
Death trap
Shoulders of the Accra-Tema Motorway worn out
While the Tema to Accra stretch remains the more deplorable, the portion around the Ashaiman tollbooth, where transit trucks park on the shoulders, sometimes for hours, has been destroyed by potholes, while erosion has also eaten into the edges.
The stretch just before the Abattoir Bridge, which was recently fixed, has developed potholes that force drivers to slow down, creating traffic congestion all the way to the Ashaiman under-bridge area during peak hours.
On four occasions, while monitoring activities on the motorway for a series of articles, I came across vehicular accidents, one of which resulted in injuries to the victims.
On my most recent tour of the motorway in November last year, a tanker truck driver, Raymond Nkrumah, who was seen stranded on the Tema-Accra side, with his vehicle in a ditch, said he had loaded the truck with diesel from the Bulk Oil and Storage Transportation (BOST) Limited in Tema and was headed for Kumasi when the truck hit a pothole, resulting in the removal of the tyre rod.
“I hit a pothole and my tyre rod came off, tossing the vehicle from one side to the other before entering the ditch,” he said.
That experience, he said, was scary.
There is also growing indiscipline on the part of road users, with illegal activities such as road diversions, illegal U-turns, illegal bus stops, the dumping of refuse, farming alongside the stretch, among others, resulting in pedestrian knockdowns, car crashes and the deterioration of the motorway.
A policeman once told me how he was overwhelmed by the spate of indiscipline on the stretch and sometimes was forced to look the other way.
“Our people are too stubborn, my brother, drivers behave like children that you have to babysit and like you can see, I am alone here,” the policeman said, with stress and sweat on his face.
The absence of illumination on some sections of the road, especially after dark, is another cause for concern due to the fact that half of the street lamps are currently not working.
The lack of visibility creates a hazardous situation, exposing drivers, cyclists and pedestrians to potential risks and is a major issue that needs to be addressed to ensure the safety of everyone using the road.
Source: graphiconline
