The terrible traffic jams associated with the La-Teshie Beach Road will soon be a thing of the past as work has commenced to widen it into a two-lane, dual carriageway. The 2.5kilometre road project starts from the front of the headquarters of the Armed Forces Southern Command and ends right after the Teshie Police Station. It is being supervised by the Department of Urban Roads, the implementing agency of the Ministry of Transportation. The project, which is expected to be completed in May next year at the cost of GH¢29 billion, is being undertaken by Big Aidoo Construction Limited a Ghanaian constructing company. In an exclusive interview with the Times in Accra Tuesday, Dr. Daniel Darku, a deputy director of the Department of Urban Roads, said the heavy traffic in the mornings and late afternoons on that stretch of road was due to the restriction at the Southern Command gate. At present, the two-lane dual carriageway from Accra ends at the Southern Command. From there, it turns into a two-lane road; "So we decided to continue with the two-lane dual carriageway up to the Teshie Police Station," he said. "The idea is that when we reach the Teshie Police Station, then we split the traffic so that some motorists will take the left through the Teshie Link, through to Teshie-Tsui Bleo and back to Teshie First Junction, he said. Other motorists could then use the main road which also leads to Nungua and Tema. He said a traffic light would be installed at where the road branches at the Teshie Link to control the movement of vehicles. Consequently, the 300 metre Teshie Military Range, which gained notoriety as the execution grounds of some former heads of state will be relocated to the Bundase Military Training Camp. A small section of the stone pavement in front of the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre, will also be affected. Dr. Darku said collaborative meetings were on-going between the department and the Military High Command on the possible relocation of the main gate of the headquarters of the Southern Command and the wall spanning it. The meetings also border on a proposed redesigning of the main entrance of the Military Academy and Training Schools (MATS) for the smooth flow of traffic to and from the MATS area. In collaboration with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, he said they would ensure that billboards for advertisement are removed from the road reservation. No individual property will be affected in the project, he said. He said that the road construction might cause some inconvenience to the public and appealed to them to exercise patience and cooperate with the contractors since the project is expected to ease traffic congestion on that stretch of road. The project started last month. Source: The Ghanaian Times