This year’s rains have barely begun, but many roads across the capital are already in a bad state. A visit to a number of locations within the capital exposed the bad nature of some of the roads.
Some of the major link roads, particularly the Kaneshie-Odorkor-Weija highway and portions of the main Accra Beach Road that leads to Tema have become dangerous to motorists.
It is also getting worse on the Accra-Amasaman-Ofankor road, as well as Bortianor roads.
Nature
Most of the roads have developed huge potholes, deep enough to serve as water receptacles and pose as death traps.
Although the situation has existed for months, it has been made worse by the recent rains, making driving on those roads dangerous and tedious.
Drivers on these routes are forced to manoeuvre their way through the potholes to avoid damaging their vehicles.
That has also resulted in traffic jams, since drivers have to slow down to avoid running into the potholes.
Areas
Last Sunday morning, the Daily Graphic toured some of the worst affected roads to assess things for itself and found out that the issue was alarming, particularly on the Kaneshie-Weija road. It included sections of the Mpamprom road, under the two Kaneshie Overhead bridges, First Light, the Dansoman Junction, the Darkuman Junction and the Odorkor Traffic Light area.
On the Accra Beach Road, the situation starts from the La Hospital stretch all the way to the bridge over the Kpeshie Lagoon.
There is no reprieve either on the Pokuase-Nsawam road, with roads at Odumase, Nsakina, Amamole through to Amasaman deteriorating by the day.
Danger
In the night, drivers are worse off due to the darkness on the roads resulting from faulty street lights.
At Kaneshie First Light, for instance, vehicles from the Pentecost area have to compete with those coming from the main Kaneshie Market to use the road.
Regular users of the road who are familiar with its poor state seem to have adopted ways to avoid the potholes, quite unlike first-time users who are overwhelmed by them.
A couple of days ago, a driver burst one of his tyres after driving into the pothole under the old overhead bride as a result of poor illumination.
The roads are already busy, and the worsened situation had resulted in traffic jams on all those roads, the Daily Graphic observed.
Existence
A commercial bus driver, Kwakye Ofori, who plies between Kaneshie and Awoshie, told the Daily Graphic that the potholes on the roads had been there for months and wondered whether the authorities were aware of the situation or not, “because I just don’t understand”.
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