The planned rehabilitation works on the Apremdo Bridge over the River Whin at Apremdo, a suburb of Takoradi in the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipality (EKMA) slated for midnight of Saturday, October 31 has been suspended indefinitely to undergo a thorough engineering works on it before the exercise.
The work was expected to be done at the said time to ensure a traffic free in the morning since the Agona Nkwanta – Takoradi road links Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire and should be accorded the needed priority.
Portions of the metal slaps for the bridge on the 27-kilometre Takoradi-Agona Nkwanta road has been in deplorable state for some time now and has come under heavy criticism by commuters for neglection.
Mr Kweku Dekyi Mensah, Managing Director of Taylor Metal Works, the construction firm that was to undertake the rehabilitation work, told Spice News that the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) petitioned the Regional Minister to stop him from undertaking the planned maintenance since it was within their purview to take any maintenance work on the road.
He was going to do the fabrication of the metal slaps for the gaps created on the road that connects the asphalted concrete to the metal bridge when he was told to stop by the GHA since they considered using concrete to solidify the bridge rather than welding the missing metal parts.
When contacted, Mr Charles Kobina, Western Regional Public Relations Officer (PRO) said the rehabilitation work was initially planned to commence on the midnight of Saturday, October 31 to be completed on Sunday, November 01.
According to him, the rehabilitation was necessary to ensure safety on the road before, during and after the December polls which would be preceded by Christmas.
He gave the assurance that there will be immediate steps to repair bad portions of the bridge this time since major rehabilitation work could not begin in October because of the rains.
Story: Seth Ameyaw Danquah
