Soil testing exercise ongoing
Works on the first ever interchange in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis and the entire Western Region being built to improve traffic flow in parts of the metropolis have commenced in earnest.
The three-tier design, which is expected to be constructed within 30 months is part of the Ghana government’s agreement with Sinohydro of China.
Thace initiative was one of the many infrastructural projects the NPP government promised the people of the Western Region.
In the heat of the campaigns towards the just-ended general election, some opposition NDC executives in the region, at a press conference, mocked that no work had begun at the site except for the sand that was transported to the place for the sod-cutting ceremony.
The Western Regional NDC Communication Officer, Richard Kirk Mensah, who addressed the press at the PTC roundabout in Takoradi, took on President Akufo-Addo and the NPP government, and said the project could never be done.
However, when DAILY GUIDE visited the site yesterday, the construction had started in earnest with the soil testing ongoing to determine the strength of the soil where some pillars would be mounted.
Derek Zikpi, the Supervisor of Rimog Engineering Company Limited, which is undertaking the soil testing exercise, told DAILY GUIDE that the testing was 85 per cent complete and that after the exercise the main construction works would start.
The Vice-President, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia, on September 15, cut the sod for the three-tier interchange at Kwame Nkrumah roundabout also known as PTC roundabout.
He hinted that another interchange project would be constructed over the period at the Paa Grant roundabout, also in Takoradi.
He explained that the projects, collectively, would improve traffic in a rather growing and booming economy of Sekondi-Takoradi.
According to him, phase one of the project will focus on the expansion of the road that leads from the Paa Grant roundabout to Sekondi, “to reduce inconveniences to motorists if the two projects are started simultaneously.
“So the first phase will be the expansion of the road and the second, after the PTC interchange is completed, will then be the Paa Grant Interchange.”
It was revealed that the projects together with several others being undertaken in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis would provide approximately 5,500 jobs for the people in the region.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi