The second phase of the Obetsebi-Lamptey Interchange in Accra, will be completed by September this year, says the Resident Engineer, Owusu Sekyere Antwi in an interview with the Ghanaian Times in Accra, yesterday.
Giving an update on the project, he said the construction of the bridge had been completed with the concrete materials awaiting the asphaltic over lay likely to be ready in two weeks’ time.
Mr Antwi said that the street lights were being worked on and the New Jersey drilling crash barriers had also been installed on the bridge, while final works on the major drains from Agbogbloshie to Korle-Bu was almost done.
When the Ghanaian Times visited the project site yesterday, workers were busily fixing the street light poles on both sides of the road to and from the bridge while that of the bridge has already been installed.
The Resident Engineer said the major outstanding work left to be done was the relocation of the Ghana Water Limited pipelines close to the roundabout for the grounds work to begin.
He noted that “the road works from the Awudome and Korle-Bu directions to the bridge deck as well as the drains towards Pamprom junction would be completed by the end of this month and by mid-September, hopefully the fully completed project would be handed over to the government as promised by the contractor.”
Mr Antwi also commended motorists and other road users especially the general public for their comportment during the construction period and urged them to bear with the contractor for the remaining one month as efforts were being made to complete the project.
The project which commenced in February 2021, was expected to have been completed March this year, however, work came to a halt due to the government’s debt exchange programme.
But the contractor, Messrs QGC UK Limited moved back to site about two months ago to continue work which was almost 90 per cent complete as the major work which include the storm drains from Pamprom to the Shell and the SIC area to the interchange have been done, and what was left was the drains from SIC to Royal House Chapel and the Korle-Bu drains which are all almost done.
Work on the 92 million Euro second phase project of the interchange undertaken by Messrs QGC UK Limited started February 2021 and expected to be completed in March 2023.
But the contractor could not meet the completion timeline in the wake of constraints that have compelled construction engineers to ask for an extension which was granted
The project covers the third tier including work from the interchange towards Abossey Okai as well as underground storm drains from the Hyundai stretch to Pamprom, near Kaneshie.
The additional storm drains provided are expected to address the perennial flooding in the area.
The first phase, valued at $35 million, was completed in November last year, five months ahead of schedule.
BY LAWRENCE VOMAFA-AKPALU