By Kizito CUDJOE
Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) has issued a completion certificate to Japan’s JFE Engineering Corporation for the second phase of the Tema Motorway Interchange, a key infrastructure upgrade expected to ease congestion and improve trade routes in West Africa, the contractor has said.
The certificate follows the project official handover on December 2, 2024to the Ministry of Roads and Highways.
The 1.8-kilometre upgrade includes a three-span steel girder bridge on the Akosombo-Harbour Road, along with retaining walls, deep foundation piles and other structural enhancements designed to ease congestion at one of the country’s busiest intersections.
Funded by a grant from the Japanese government through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the project began in September 2022 and was completed within 27 months.
JICA funded the project with a ¥3.66billion (US$33million) grant to Ghana. Combined with the first phase, total investment in the motorway interchange reached approximately US$91million.
Phase-one of the Motorway project, completed earlier under the ‘Project for the Improvement of International Corridors in Ghana’, was constructed by Shimizu-Dai Nippon JV.
Speaking in an interview during a visit to the project site, Project Manager-JFE Engineering Corporation, Satoshi Yamamoto, said the completion certificate officially signifies an end of all their work on the project while also marking the start of a ‘defect liability period’.
With the completion certificate issued, GHA assumes responsibility for maintenance. Under the ‘defect liability period’, JFE Engineering will return in a year to inspect for structural defects and make necessary corrections.
This was corroborated by the Project Coordinator of GHA, Ing. Ishmael Paul Otoo, who said the authority has substantially taken over the project.
According to project managers, the adoption and use of special Japanese steel materials for the project among others will contribute to extending the steel component’s lifespan to 70 years before maintenance.
Notably, the construction project employed local engineers who made up approximately 90 percent of the engineering workforce. This approach facilitated technology transfer and enhanced local expertise.
Programme Specialist-Infrastructure, JICA Ghana, Joshua Biliwi Mabe added that JICA has contributed to building the capacity of engineers at GHA. “We have trained them and also developed manuals to assist them in determining which part of the project to monitor to maintain it.”
Additionally, Mr. Mabe said JICA has instituted some programmes to build the capacity of locals across the various ministries in diverse fields. “In the roads sector, beneficiary engineers of our capacity building programmes are stationed across the country,” he stated.
“We developed a long-term ‘Road Asset Management Programme’, with seven engineers from the Ministry of Roads and Highways, GHA, Department of Urban Roads and the Department of Feeder Roads benefitting from it.”
This kind of capacity-building programme, he noted, is to ensure that there is local expertise to take charge of and maintain projects undertaken by JICA across the country together with its attendant technology.
The project site visit for the Tema Motorway Interchange’s second phase was part of a media tour organised by JICA, which included several key project sites in the country as well as the worksites of its volunteering programme.
During a pre-tour briefing at the JICA office in Accra, the Chief Representative of JICA in Ghana, Momoko Suzuki, stressed the Tema Motorway Interchange’s strategic importance for the country and West Africa region.
She said the project not only eases heavy traffic but also improves connectivity and facilitates trade in the region of West Africa.
“This contributes to ‘The Big Push’ – the National Infrastructure Development Programme of government – in boosting economic growth and creating sustainable jobs,” she stated.
Momoko Suzuki said the project aligns with Japan’s commitment at Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD V) in 2013 to invest in African infrastructure, including five major international corridors, reinforcing economic growth and connectivity in West Africa.
