Reconstruction of Kasoa-Winneba Junction road laudable

 The move by the govern­ment to re-construct the 30-kilometre Kasoa-Win­neba Junction road into a dual carriageway with interchanges from January next year is a good one.

This is because its completion would bring a lot of relief to users of that stretch, both drivers and passengers, as well as com­munities along it.

The current single-lane is noted for traffic congestion; care­lessness of drivers who want to jump the gridlock; waste of man-hours; inconvenience suffered by pedestrians crossing it; and environmental pollution.

All these problems have their individual implications for driv­ers, passengers, particularly the commuters among them; and the communities along the road.

Imagine just the discomfort or stress suffered in long stay in traffic from the heat in the trop­ical climate, the fumes (carbon monoxide) emitted by vehicles, and the noise around.

These alone have serious implications for the health of the affected people.

The fuel burnt in traffic and the man-hours lost, as well as contracts and other opportunities missed are costly and some of the losses can have heavy nega­tive effects on some people.

There is one effect of traffic congestion which goes beyond the communities on the affected stretch to others elsewhere in the country and this is serious in the case of the Kasoa-Winneba Junc­tion stretch.

This is the undermining of the socio-cultural and economic lives of the people, which people tend to overlook in spite of its heavy toll.

Do you know that some peo­ple have aversion for travelling on the Kasoa-Winneba stretch because of the heavy traffic con­gestion on it and all its implica­tions and so avoid patronising so­cio-cultural activities that would necessitate using that road?

This means such people would refuse to attend funer­als, weddings and festivals, for instance, in communities along the stretch and its vicinity, and those elsewhere in the Central, Western and Western North regions as well as parts of the Ashanti Region like Obuasi and surrounding areas once they have to use that road.

Even when they do, they itch to leave at a time the events have not reached their peak.

This undermines the value and beauty of the events because usually, it is the presence of a good number of people at such events that helps to mark them as being successful.

If the events call for dona­tion of cash, some visitors leave before that points is reached and the organisers or the communi­ties lose those instances where people would have shown some benevolence.

Taking all these and other problems into consideration, we wish to commend the govern­ment ahead of the commence­ment of the reconstruction works.

We hope it will sustain the seriousness with which it has an­nounced the project and extend same to its monitoring to ensure that quality and time are being adhered to.

The specifications for the road and its furniture, as well as the interchanges, must not be distorted.

The 30-month schedule for the works must be adhered to because even though the recon­struction bring the expected relief, road construction generally causes inconvenience for drivers, passengers and communities and a longer period would worsen the situation.

We hope the contractor would do a good job and the affected communities would offer the needed support.