News about the Minister of Roads and Highways, Hon. Governs Kwame Agbodza ordering a probe into the “rapid deterioration” of the newly constructed 66km Tarkwa-Agona Nkwanta road was rife yesterday.
It made the headlines on major online news portals. The directive was issued while on a working visit yesterday to inspect the €95 million infrastructure funded by the Deutche Bank AG based in Frankfurt, Germany.
Coincidentally, I had observed some surprising defects while trekking a stretch of the Bankyim section of the road earlier yesterday, giving me first hand experience about the Minister’s plight. The asphaltic wearing course of that portion had deformed significantly. The form of deformation, known as rutting can be attributed to various construction and post-construction factors including heavy traffic loads, inadequate compaction, weak subgrades, poor mix design, and high temperatures.
Although material quality could definitely not be determined by a visual inspection, residents of Tarkwa could attest to the fact that Portuguese contractor, Gabriel Couto adhered to international standards and utilized of cutting-edge technology in the construction phase of the project.
These defects in question sparks a conversation not only about Ghana’s axle load regulatory regime but also, the urgent need to re-adopt rail as the primary means of transport for raw materials – bauxite, manganese, cocoa, timber to the Port in Takoradi. Revamping the Western Railway Line which runs from the Takoradi Port to Kumasi with a branch line from Dunkwa to Awaso is crucial.
While I want to believe that traffic volume considerations were made at design phase, it is an established fact that having to haul bauxite and manganese for instance, by road from Awaso, Western North Region and Nsuta, Western Region in an 85km and 244km travel time respectively via heavy duty trucks deteriorates our road infrastructure rapidly.
Similar to the Tarkwa-Agona Nkwanta inter regional route, many of our national highways come with ancillary facilities like axle load stations, but enforcement remains a challenge. It came as zero surprise to me, the story of how some five trucks were impounded for exceeding load limits (some as much as 20 tonnes) on an unannounced working visit to the axle station by the Minister responsible for Roads.
There is the need for the Ghana highway authority to ensure strict enforcement of the axle load regulations under the Road Traffic Regulation, 2012 (L.I. 2180), which aims to prevent overloading and protect road infrastructure, with fines for exceeding permissible limits.
There is a call for action to find a sustainable solution to the infrastructural burden presented by the mineral resources industry (especially extractive sector) and broadly prevent the foreseeable complications we could suffer in securing external grants from institutions like the Deutche Bank AG, who prioritise sustainability and value for money.
By: Emmanuel Swanzy-Baffoe
