A civil engineer has countered President Akufo-Addo’s claim of constructing 10,875 kilometres of road in five years.

Speaking in an interview with Emefa Adeti on Prime Morning on Monday, Abdulai Mahama revealed that road construction takes time, which makes it impossible to even construct 5,000 kilometers of road within nine months.

He explained that given all the resources available to a contractor, he/she has to go through a long process to have all the paper works done.

In addition, the mobilisation of equipment, logistics and human resources to start the actual work, takes months.

“If you give all resources to about 20 contractors to finish 5,000kms of road in less than nine months, it cannot be possible,” he emphasised.

Citing an example, he mentioned the Ofankor to Nsawam road, a 17km stretch in which work is yet to start, a year after it was awarded in 2021.

“I understand that the Ofankor-Nsawam road is to be completed in 36 months’ time. If the construction of 17km will take this time, one can tell how long it will take to construct a 5,000km long road,” he said.

He noted that activities in road construction are a process, not an event where one can have the money, mount equipment and say that a road has been fully constructed.

“The management of traffic on existing roads to have a free lane to start work, creating of gutters and the making of concrete culverts, to divert drainage systems takes a lot of contractors’ time before they start with the actual work on the road,” he added.

While delivering the 2022 State of the Nation Address on Wednesday, March 30, 2022,  President Akufo-Addo said his government has constructed some 10,875 kilometers of new road within the five years he has been in office.

This, he said, is an unprecedented achievement in the infrastructure sector in the history of Ghana.

“In the five years of my government, so far, more roads have been built, improved and upgraded than at any other equivalent period under any government in the history of Ghana. Some 10,875 kilometers of new roads have been constructed in these five years”.

Reacting to this, Mr. Mahama rebuked the President’s statement and reiterated that looking at records from last year, there is no way the government can construct roads that tally with the figures.

He said last year May, the Minister of Roads and Highways in his meet the press series stated that a total of 4,263.37kms of road have been built from 2017 to May 2021. The cumulative figure he gave entails all roads both new and rehabilitated ones within four years.

“If government had built 4,263.37 kms of road within four years and given that all resources are made available to construct 5,000kms of road within five months, it is not possible,” he concluded.