The Ministry of Roads and Highways has allayed fears that the newly inaugurated Kwame Nkrumah flyover will, like many other Ghanaian infrastructure, be left to deteriorate as a result of the bad maintenance culture in the country.
According to sector minister Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, government has put steps in place to ensure that the €74million project lasts its designed lifespan of 50 years.
Speaking to Class News’ Regina Borley Bortey on 12Live on Class91.3FM on Tuesday 15 November, Mr Fuseini said a team of people have been trained to maintain the flyover while similar ones are built with the same technology in the capital.
“We are looking at [maintaining the bridge for 50 years] and not three or four years. We are looking to get value for money for the bridge, we are building the bridge for the future and not for three or four years,” he stated.
“And we are building many bridges. We’re building the Kasoa Bridge with the same technology, we are going to build the Obetsebi Lamptey Bridge with the same technology, and that calls for the establishment of a department within the Unit of Urban Roads to take care of those bridges because we are using a new technology.”
Mr Fuseini disclosed that as part of plans to maintain the flyover, “people have been selected and trained for the maintenance of those bridges because it costs the Ghanaian tax payer so much money to put up these bridges, so we must put in place a system to maintain those bridges”.
He said the flyover will not put an end to the constant flooding of the area whenever there is a heavy downpour. According to the Tamale Central legislator, “the building of the interchange has absolutely nothing to do with the flooding situation at Circle. The flooding situation is as a result of the Odaw river. The Odaw drain doesn’t carry the full capacity of water it ought to carry and that is why the ministry of local government and urban development, acting through the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, has embarked on a periodic desilting of the Odaw River”.
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