Final ancillary works are ongoing on portions of the Obetsebi Lamptey Interchange project to enable the contractors to hand over the project by the end of March this year, the Resident Engineer of the project, Owusu Sekyere Antwi, has said. 

The works include the laying of pavement blocks on the walkways, doing the wearing course (second course of asphalt), road lines and markings, road furniture (road signs, directional signs) and the installation of traffic lights.

Substantial

This follows a substantial completion of Phase Two of the project, which involved the construction of a 389-metre bridge from the Korle Bu end towards the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, in December last year. The entire project costs €87 million.

“By the end of March, we should have finished all the small, small things I'm talking about,” Mr Antwi told the Daily Graphic after reporters of the paper visited the project site to observe the ongoing works.

During the visit, it was realised that at portions of the project where there were excavations or an opening, the places were cordoned off with red and white caution tapes.

Places where pavement blocks were being mounted were also cordoned off.

The places included the Mpamprom, Agbogbloshie and the Zongo Junction traffic lights, where skeletal staff of the construction firm could be seen working.

Observation

It was also observed that wire mesh, mounted on bamboo poles, was also used to cordon off certain parts of the roads, especially under the bridges.

Minimal works still ongoing to complete the Obetsebi Lamptey Interchange project.  Picture: CALEB VANDERPUYE

Workers on site were also seen removing the carpets that were laid on the roundabout during the inauguration of the project last year by former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the time of Graphic’s visit.

Mr Antwi said with the remainder of the works left to be completed, “we are not going to do major excavations”.

Asked about the plan for the Zongo Junction, where the road was in a bad state, the resident engineer for the project said that would be asphalted in the course of the works being done.

He explained that with the project being substantially completed, the owner of the facility could take over and start to use it.

Moreover, he said there was a one-year maintenance, where defects identified were fixed at the cost of the contractor after which it was finally completed.

Delay

Mr Antwi said the project, which should have been completed in 2023, had been delayed because of the financial situation the country went into which affected other projects as well.

He said the full workforce was expected to move to the site by Monday, January 13, 2025, and that those working were only skeletal staff.

Phase One of the project was completed and inaugurated by President Akufo-Addo on Tuesday, November 24, 2020, while Phase Two, which is made up of a flyover on the Ring Road West (Awudome to the Abossey Okai Central Mosque) and the widening of the Ring Road West (from Awudome Junction to Obetsebi Lamptey Interchange) into a two by three dual carriageway, was completed November 29, 2024.

The project, among other things, aimed at improving traffic flow between key arterials, including the Ring Road West towards the Nkrumah Interchange and the Ring Road West Extension towards Abossey Okai.

The Obetsebi-Lamptey Interchange project is being executed by QG Construction Limited.