By Kofi Akordor
Sometimes I wonder whether those who have taken it upon themselves or been put in certain positions to take care of our needs as a nation see the things the rest of us see or feel the same way as we feel when we are confronted with very unpleasant situations.
When the Accra-Tema Motorway was opened to traffic in the 1960s, it was easy to count the number of vehicles plying our roads. In those days, only a few individuals were in competition with the government and companies in vehicle ownership. Therefore, the roundabout at the Accra end of the Motorway, until recently the Tetteh-Quarshie Roundabout, and the one at the Tema end were adequate, both in design and construction, to carry the traffic that plied the road.
Things have changed over the years and the traffic on the Accra-Tema Motorway has multiplied several times and cannot in any way be compared with the lean traffic it carried in the past. Unfortunately, typical of us, we have not been able to expand and improve upon facilities in tandem with population growth or ease pressure on existing facilities.
The Motorway, seriously speaking, never saw any development except for the occasional weeding of the sides and filling of craters with bitumen. Apart from our zeal and eagerness to collect tolls, the four-lane road has remained what it was more than 40 years after its construction, without any expansion or modernisation. Seriously, it has, over the years, deteriorated into a death trap because of the numerous craters, the absence of inner and side markings to guide motorists and the darkness that engulfs it at night.
The road, which in the past passed through no human settlement, now virtually cuts east and west Accra into two. New communities, both prime and slum, have developed along the Motorway, making it dangerous for commuters who struggle daily to use unapproved entry and exit points to reach their destinations.
The communities on the western side include East Legon, Adjiriganno, Trasacco Valley, Adjei-Kojo and Ashaiman, while on the eastern side there are the vast residential and industrial estates along the Spintex Road Tema Communities 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20.
Apart from the congestion and insecurity on the Motorway, the Spintex Road, which runs parallel to it and which carries heavy traffic from the new Tema communities mentioned earlier, Ashaiman, Tema Main and the many other vast residential and industrial properties, has not been developed and upgraded to effectively play the strategic role it has assumed.
Our biggest failure, so far as using the motorway is concerned, can be seen in the two roundabouts at the Accra and the Tema ends. The Kufuor Administration attempted to improve things by constructing an overhead bridge at Ashaiman to connect traffic from Tema and Ashaiman to the Motorway.
It also developed the Tetteh-Quarshie Roundabout and renamed it the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange. Incidentally, this was where that government failed the people of this country most. The Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange has nothing to boast about. It has no beauty and has done nothing to improve upon the traffic situation in that part of the nation’s capital.
Today, apart from Tetteh-Quarshie, which needs a lot of serious redesigning and reconstruction, the roundabout at the Tema end of the motorway needs serious and very immediate attention. The traffic situation at that place is not only unnerving but also an eyesore for our proud Port City of Tema.
This roundabout connects the Accra-Aflao-Lome-Cotonou-Lagos international road, the Accra-Akosombo-Ho road and beyond which carries traffic to the northern parts of the country. Finally, this is the roundabout which connects the Tema Port to Accra and the country’s Eastern Corridor, which is the gateway to Togo, Benin and Nigeria.
Accra is our capital city and we need to upgrade the roads to reflect its international status and reduce the stress on driving in Accra. It is for this reason that those roundabouts or circles which dominated Accra’s landscape in the last 50 and more years should give way to fly-overs and interchanges.
These would not only make vehicle distribution in the city easier but would give Accra a new facelift to befit its status as a capital of a country that has declared itself as the Gateway to West Africa and also the new oil giant in the sub-region.
The circles which incidentally bear the names of some of the most illustrious sons of the land include the Obetsebi-Lamptey Circle, the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and the Danquah Circle. All of them are on the Ring Road and contribute a lot to traffic congestion in the city.
Sometimes these traffic congestions give us the false impression that ours is a wealthy country with many people owning vehicles. That is not the case. We simply do not have good roads in the city.
Accra has outgrown these circles which have pushed our national capital many years behind other capitals in the world. We may complain of lack of funds for these projects. But what we should realize is that the state of our infrastructure and the level of development in our cities have psychological effects on those who want to come and do business here.
Dirty and poorly-developed roads, choked with traffic is very frustrating and time-consuming and cannot serve as an attraction to any serious-minded business person. They would come and go to return no more without offering any explanations.
According to experts, two overheads need to be constructed on the Motorway to ease traffic from the Spintex Road area and the East Legon, Trasacco Valley and Adjiriganno to the Motorway, Accra Central and the Beach Road linking Accra to Tema through Teshie and Nungua.
These projects should not be abandoned on the grounds of lack of funds because where there is the will, there is the way. Our leaders should be more proactive, imaginative and responsible and move out from the shadows of poverty. We are stagnating and not moving as a nation.
The perception that we admire and worship mediocrity should be erased from our minds If we do not confront development issues with greater determination, we may only succeed in putting money in the pockets of a few if even we are handed billions of dollars in oil money while still dancing around the real issues.
Accra, whether we like it or not, in comparative terms, is gradually developing into an overgrown village and not the dazzling city we would be proud of. Some may look behind them and come to that comforting conclusion that we are doing well. But the best thing to do in a race is to look ahead. If we should do that, we would realise that we have a long way to go.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Editor’s Note:
The column: ‘From my Rooftop’ , takes a break while the writer participates in an Advanced Journalism programme at the International Centre for Journalists, Washington, DC, USA.
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