Ministry Clarifies Road Projects

Kwasi Amoako-Attah

The Ministry of Roads and Highways has provided clarity on the President’s statement on the road sector.

President Akufo-Addo on Wednesday disclosed during his message on the State of the Nation (SONA) that his government had overseen the construction of some 10,875 kilometers of new roads in the last five years.

According to the Roads Ministry, the country’s total road network size in 2017 was 78,402km.

As at the end of 2021, the projected network size had increased to 94,203km and was subsequently updated to 10,875km as at end of February, 2022.

“Over the past years, a lot of investment had gone into both the paved and unpaved roads to improve the riding quality on our roads. The 10,875 kilometers of roads constructed have been on both paved and unpaved roads,” the ministry explained.

The maintenance of our unpaved network, the ministry stressed, is critical to the improvement of the road condition mix in the country, adding that under a World Bank/European Union Project, Transport Sector Improvement Project (TSIP), the World Bank was financing over 800km of feeder roads to gravel finish.

This, the ministry stressed, further illustrates the need to invest in the maintenance of our predominant unpaved network.

“It is significant to note that the majority of roads (over 70%) in the road network are unpaved.

“Technically, any activity on the road amounts to ‘construction’ hence the President’s statement that, ‘so far, more roads have been built, improved and upgraded than at any other equivalent period under any government in the history of Ghana’,” the ministry underscored.

Answering a question posed by Eric Afful, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Amenfi West, the Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Attah stated on February 15, 2022, in Parliament that, a total of 4,263km had been constructed or maintained on the paved and unpaved roads between January 2017 and May 2021.

This, it explained, did not take into account the ongoing road activities that had not been completed by end of May 2021.

“As at the end of February 2022, a total of 1702km of construction and maintenance activities which were undertaken on paved roads and 4,910km of works on unpaved roads had been completed,” the ministry added.

BY Nii Adjei Mensahfio

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