The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has advised pedestrians and motorists using the newly constructed Pokuase Interchange in the Ga West Municipality to strictly adhere to all directional signage provided to ensure safety of all.

Already, two road accidents have been recorded since the interchange was fully opened to traffic on Sunday. One person was said to have been knocked down by a vehicle while crossing from one end of the interchange to the other on Tuesday, while two private vehicles with registration numbers; GX 268-17 and GE 2898-29 were involved in a head-on collision on one of the sections on Wednesday.

Briefing the media on measures put in place to ensure safety of the public, Mr David Osafo Adonteng, Director, Planning and Programmes at NSRA said motorists and pedestrians using the interchange must ensure full compliance to all road signage on the interchange to curb such incidents and protect lives.

“We were told that a pedestrian was hit by a vehicle on one of the sections yesterday. Some of our people are a bit recalcitrant, indiscipline and you know the problem we all have.

“Even whilst we were there, they were still forcing to jump over some of the median, the fences and the walls although the police are around and putting fear in them,” he said.

Mr Adonteng gave the advice when officials from the Ministry of Roads and Highways and the Ghana Highway Authority inspected the project, ahead of its commissioning on Friday July 9, 2021.

To reduce the level of misreading of directional post on the interchange, Mr Adonteng said the Authority and the Ghana Police Service had embarked on a rigorous sensitization of residents as well as transport operators to ensure hustle-free use of the facility.

He added that officials from the Authority would remain on site after it had been commissioned to continue to educate its users to ensure that carnage on the interchange was reduced to the barest minimum.

“The NRSA is working with MTTD of the Ghana Police Service, engaging the public especially pedestrians. We are showing them where to walk and where to cross. Everything has also been put on flyers and we are circulating them to the public.

“We have also done some in animation and are running them on social media and other media outlets,” he added.

The four-tier Pokuase Interchange commenced in April 2018 and was initially expected to be completed in October 2020, but that was changed to March 2021.

The government, in May 2021, said the project would be completed in the first week of July 2021.

Estimated at a cost of $94.8 million, the project comprised a five-kilometre Awoshie-Pokuase road, two-kilometre Accra-Nsawam road, two-kilometre Kwabenya road and 10 kilometres of local roads to improve traffic flow in parts of Accra.
It was jointly financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Government, as part of a comprehensive integrated urban transportation system to improve urban mobility.

On November 5, 2020, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo commissioned the first phase of the project.

Mr Kwabena Bempong, the Resident Engineer for the Pokuase Interchange project cautioned members of the public to desist from erecting billboards on and around the interchange to enable visibility of road signs.

“Bill boards cannot be accommodated either on the bridge or the approaches to the bridge because once that is done there is a likelihood that some of these signs will be blocked,” he said.