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The traffic situation around East Legon and its environs in Accra, is still intense despite the early opening of a newly constructed tunnel.

The new tunnel was opened to traffic on Monday, and replaces the old smaller one-way tunnel, which caused vehicular heavy traffic during rush hour because it could only carry one stream of oncoming vehicles at a time.

Prior to the opening of the new tunnel, road users had complained bitterly about the massive gridlock at the old tunnel during rush hour, and the delay in completion of the new tunnel.

But from the look of things, it appears the traffic situation is only moving to other places within the vicinity.

Though the new tunnel’s construction was expected to ease traffic on that stretch - on Tuesday evening that the traffic situation appears not to have changed much as had been reported in the morning.

The traffic started from the Palace Mall area to East Legon.

“This is like the worst in about two weeks,” he added.
It is unclear whether the traffic situation may have worsened due to the huge number of vehicles using the stretch following the opening of the new tunnel.

Opening of new tunnel

According to the Ghana Highway Authority, the decision to open the tunnel for use by motorists was taken in order to allow the company executing the project, Sonitra Construction, to complete work on other parts of the road.

“This is just temporary and it is a diversion to enable work on the left turn at the East Legon junction to go on. It has not been officially opened,” the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ghana Highway Authority, Diana Seade said in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday.

Despite stating that the opening of the tunnel was temporary, she hinted that the tunnel might remain in use to aid the flow of traffic until it is officially commissioned.