President Akufo-Addo commissioning the road
President Akufo-Addo has officially commissioned the Paa Grant Roundabout – New Takoradi road – as part of his recent three-day tour of the Western Region.
The road which is a concrete pavement block surfacing covers a distance of about five kilometres.
The construction of the road was in two phases. The first phase covered the rehabilitation of existing road from the Paa Grant Roundabout through to the New Takoradi Roundabout to the Takoradi Port Gate 10.
The second section was from the new Takoradi Roundabout, through the marshy area at New Takoradi to Takoradi Container Terminal (TACOTEL).
Concrete was used as base and pavement blocks on the surface, walkways and streets lights were all included in the design.
It was funded by IbisTek, operators of the Takoradi Container Terminal (TACOTEL) in partnership with the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA).
Over 10 million tons of cargo used the New Takoradi road last year and it is expected that within the next two years as the road had been completed, close to 20 million tons of cargo will use the road to the Port of Takoradi.
Members of the New Takoradi community had for years decried and demonstrated against city authorities over the bad nature of the road.
The ecstatic residents therefore trooped to witness the commissioning ceremony on Sunday. They held placards which read “Thank you Mr President, we have good roads now”, “We will never forget you, Nana”, “Nana for life”, “Nana and Kobby (Takoradi MP) we wish you well”, etc.
At a commissioning ceremony held last Sunday at the Takoradi Ports, chairman for IbisTek, Kwame Gyan, noted that the road infrastructure project was necessitated by the port expansion works in Takoradi.
He mentioned that a concession agreement signed with the GPHA in August 2017 for the construction of an on-dock container and multipurpose terminal required the relocation of an oil jetty at the ports.
It also required the reconstruction of the Paa Grant Roundabout trough New Takoradi road to Gate 10 of the Takoradi port.
“Mr President, the total cost of the road project is $6,389,693.97 and this is being borne 100 per cent by IbisTek.
“The expectation is that with this road constructed as part of IbisTek corporate social responsibility will be able to ease the traffic situation into the port”, he explained.
Mr Gyan added that a 2.3 kilometre road project with the same specification would be constructed from New Takoradi to Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi.
He mentioned that the contract sum for the construction of the roads would be $6.3 million.
He added that the company was working on finalizing compensations for property owners whose assets would be affected by the construction of the road.
“We are currently finalizing matters relating to compensations for structures within the road reservation so the contractor can move in quickly to complete that segment as well,” he said.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi