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Downpour creates traffic jam on Accra-Nsawam road

A pool of water which gathered between the National Police Training School, Tesano and Abeka Junction on the Nsawam-Accra highwayDOfollowing days of heavy rainfall, yesterday created heavy vehicular traffic on the stretch.

An attempt by drivers coming from the direction of  Nsawam and adjoining communities to Accra, to dodge the pool of water, which had collected precisely on the section of the road in front of the Ghana CommunicationTechnology University, created a buildup of vehicles and consequently creating a huge traffic jam on the stretch.

The presence of personnel from the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) to control traffic could not help the situation.

Commuters and drivers from Nsawam to Accra went through hell of time traveling to Circle and the Central Business District yesterday.

For almost three hours, commuters from Nsawam to Accra were caught up in a gridlock in a journey which should take an hour if there is no traffic jam.

Particularly, traffic on the main highway from the Nsawam to Accra direction had reached almostTaifa Junction around  9.30 am yesterday.

Some commuters who spoke to the Ghanaian Times expressed worry about the huge traffic on the road.

“I woke up as early as 5am to go to Accra and buy some wares and return, but here I am stuck in truck,” a trader from Nsawam, Patricia Mensah, told the Ghanaian Times.

A trotro driver, Yaw Owusu told the Ghanaian Times that he could not fathomthe heavy traffic on Monday when no vehicle had broken down on the road.

He said normally the Nsawam-Accra Highway was less busy on Mondays since a lot of people had travel to the hinterlands were yet to return to Accra.

When the Ghanaian Times visited the scene at around 1.20 pm to take some pictures, the pool of water was being drained by a sceptic emptier.

The Sub-Metro Chairman of the Okaikoi South Municipal Assembly, Ibrahim TettehAnkrah told the Ghanaian Times that he had a call in the morning from the Municipal Chief Executive Officer of Okaikoi North, MrBoiLaryea about a pool of water which had gathered on the road in front of the Ghana Communications University, impeding free flow of traffic.

He said as a result he quickly organized a sceptic emptier to pump out the pool of water at that section of the road.

MrAnkrah said it took an hour for the water to be drained from the road to allow free flow of traffic.

Asked, whether there was a long term solution to the problem, the Sub-Metro Chairman responded “the solution has to come from the Ghana Highway Authority since the road is under Ghana Highway Authority.”

Also, quizzed what was accounting for the perennial flooding of the sectionof the road, MrAnkrah said “I am not an expert and can’t respond to that.”

But the Ghanaian Times observed that the gutter created in the median of the road was small and could not accommodate the volume of water whenever it rained.

It was also observed that siltation of the gutter accounted for the flooding of that section of the road.

BY KINGSLEY ASARE

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