During the early part of the year 2017, the Director General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, Paul Asare Ansah assured that the new Takoradi road would receive his attention as soon as possible.
According to him, looking at where the direction of the development of the port is heading, the road will be the main access link to and from the port, therefore, GPHA was going to develop it into a first class road.
In efforts to walk the talk, the construction of the road was made part of the agreement with IBISTEK CROWLEY concession contract, in addition to building the about $370 million Takoradi multipurpose terminal.
Today, work is near completion on the New Takoradi road as about 90% paving works have been done from the Paa Grant roundabout to the New Takoradi roundabout and from the New Takoradi roundabout to the Takoradi Port.
“What is left is the road marking and the safety or road signs which are being prepared,” Resident Engineer, Kwame Agyei told Eye on Port.
The only portion left is about 2km stretch from the new Takoradi round about to Takoradi Container Terminal (TACOTEL) which is also a subsidiary company of IBISTEK Crowley.
“The first section and second section of the road is fully paved and opened to traffic,” he added.
Kwame Agyei, the resident engineer whose firm, Arc Consult was contracted for the road development assured that strong materials have been used for the road construction that will stand the test of time.
The Deputy Marketing and Corporate Affairs manager of Takoradi Port, Peter Amo Bediako said the construction of the road has huge economic impact on the Takoradi Port.
“If cargo is not able to move out of the port fast enough, it causes a lot of delays, vessel wait for a long time, cargo that needs to come into port is also delayed and also adds up to the cost of doing business in the port and turnaround time goes up. At the end of the day, all economic operators will not do this or pay money and just leave it. They would add up to cost of commodities on the market,” he expounded.
The total stretch of the road is 4.8 kilometres and the contractors believe they will certainly be able to hand over the finished job by the end of their contract which is November, 2018, some five months away.