A contractor is blaming lethargic engineers employed by the government for shoddy road projects leading to a faster deterioration of newly-built roads.

According to the contractor who wants to remain anonymous, most supervising engineers of the state fail to go on site to assess the quality of the work being done.

Just a little over 23% of the country’s road network has been asphalted, sector Minister, Kwesi Amoako-Atta announced last December, during a swearing-in of a nine-member Ministerial Advisory Board of the Ministry of Roads and Highways in Accra.

Many of the projects which fall under the 23% begin to show signs of deterioration just after a year of being used thereby compounding the already poor traffic situation in most parts of the country.

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Speaking on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM Tuesday, the contractor conceded that the delay by the contracting state agency to release funds on time only affect the project’s completion schedule.

The poor quality of the work is rather the result of site engineers either neglecting their responsibilities or under-designing, he told Show host, Kojo Yankson.

According to the contractor, building a very thick road with a solid foundation means cracking and caving which happen less often because the roads are designed to be more difficult for water to get down under.

They rather choose to build a thinner road with a less stable foundation which will need lots of regular upkeep, he added.

But the situation is different when the project is funded by donor partners because, they will engage the services of an independent consulting engineer to supervise and monitor the work, the contractor said.

The contractor explained that before a new road is built, engineers predict how much and what use the road is going to be put to which then informs the kind of monitoring mechanism to be deployed during the construction stage.