Work begins on Tetteh Quarshie-Mallam Junction dual carriageway

The Government on Wednesday added another significant landmark to its road infrastructure development with the start of reconstruction work to upgrade the Tetteh Quarshie-Mallam Junction single carriageway to a three-lane dual carriageway.

The 14.1 kilometre road project is an extension of the Accra-Tema Motorway, which has been on the drawing board for more than 40 years.

It is being implemented under the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Ghana Compact.

The project is in two phases and would involve the building of two interchanges, one at Dimples Junction and another at Mallam Junction.

Lot one of the first phase runs from Tetteh Quarshie-Apenkwa interchange and is being done by Chinese Contractors, China Railway (Wuju) Corporation at a cost of 42.2 million dollars.

President John Agyekum Kufuor, who was on hand to break the ground to mark the formal commencement of work, said when completed it would improve the turnaround time from farm gates particularly in the Central Region, one of the key regions involved in the MCA, to the Kotoka International Airport and Tema seaport.

Additionally, it would tremendously help to reduce vehicle travel time and operating cost.

President Kufuor said the overall impact of the road to be known as George Walker Bush Motorway was going to be immense.

Currently, travelling on it is slow and tedious as a result of heavy human and vehicular traffic.

The MCA Ghana Compact is being supported by the United States in the sum of 547 million dollars.

He conveyed appreciation to the US for the development assistance, which, he said, was facilitating the realisation of the nation's 40 years dream of a first class motorway stretching all the way from Tema to Mallam Junction.

Mr John J. Danilovich, Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), described the project as a linchpin to help Ghana to achieve agricultural transformation.

Infrastructure development, he noted, was critical to economic growth and poverty reduction.

He said he was confident that the two countries in the next two years would look back and say, "our partnership made the difference".

Mr Danilovich said his country and Ghana shared in the goal of achieving prosperity for their peoples, adding that, "We believe in Ghana's bright future."

He gave the assurance that the US's commitment to helping to end poverty in Africa was not going to wane under the next US Administration.

Dr Richard Anane, Minister of Transportation, said 950 kilometres of feeder roads and 250 kilometres of trunk roads would be upgraded under the MCA programme.