The four Kumasi-Ejisu road roundabouts will all be removed and replaced with signalized intersections by the end of the year.
The Ministry of Roads and Highways has ordered the demolition of all roundabouts on the Kumasi-Ejisu road. This directive was issued out by the Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Atta during a 3-day visit to the Ashanti Region last week.
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According to the Minister, the four Kumasi-Ejisu road roundabouts will all be removed and replaced with signalized intersections before the year [2017] runs out.
The Kumasi-Ejisu Road Roundabouts to be Removed
The four roundabouts that have been mapped out for removal include: the Ejisu roundabout, Oduom Roundabout, Buadi Junction roundabout, and Tech roundabout.
The roundabouts were part of a design for the GHS394 billion Danish government-funded reconstruction of the 46-kilometre Kumasi-Konongo Road Project in 2004.
This decision, according to the sector Minister, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, follows reports of the inconvenience and accidents caused by the narrowing of the roads by the cobblestones lined around the roundabout.
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He noted that contrary to the initial safety purposes for which the structures were put in place – particularly for the passage of heavy duty trucks, the Kumasi-Ejisu roundabouts have now become a major cause of heavy vehicular traffic and road crashes on the stretch.
Records reveal that at least, two accidents, especially, involving cargo trucks occur around one roundabout or the other every week.
“During the construction, this provision was made for a good reason; for safety priorities. But at the moment, we think that the facility has outlived its usefulness. Engineering review has proven that we can remove them [the roundabouts], and there couldn’t be any appropriate occasion to give that directive than now,” Mr. Amoako-Atta told the media during an inspection of the Kumasi-Ejisu road.
“I am therefore directing my chief director and all the directors of agencies that within the next two months… all these four roundabouts should be removed, and the road straightened up. By so doing, all these cobalt stones will be removed on the entire stretches,” he added.
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The Minister assured that all engineering safety steps will be taken during the removal process, expressing hopes that it would go a long way to ensure a free flow of traffic on the road.
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, has expressed happiness with the directive given, saying it would reduce congestion and accidents on the stretch.
“We will have a smooth flow of traffic from now and we are very grateful to them. We are very happy that today, this problem by the end of the year is going to be the thing of the past,” says Mr. Osei-Mensah
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