Accra-Tema Expressway project 53% complete

Construction works on the first section of the Accra-Tema Expressway and Extensions Project have reached 53 per cent completion, with the contractor expected to intensify work to meet the August 2027 deadline.

The $339-million project is intended to ease traffic congestion, improve urban mobility and strengthen trade connectivity along one of Ghana’s busiest transport corridors.

The project is being implemented with the Ministry of Roads and Highways and the Ghana Highway Authority as public-sector partners, while ATEL is the concessionaire and Maripoma Enterprise Limited is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Accra-Tema Expressway Limited (ATEL), Louis Harrison, said the project was designed to restore the motorway to a standard befitting its importance to the country’s economy.

Speaking at a media engagement and official launch of ATEL’s website yesterday, Mr Harrison said the motorway, which opened in 1965, now carried approximately 60,000 vehicles daily, far exceeding the traffic volumes anticipated when it was constructed.

He said the road served commuters, businesses and freight transport linking Accra to Tema, Ghana’s principal industrial city and port.

Mr Harrison said the project was being implemented under a 30-year public-private partnership (PPP) toll-road concession, under which ATEL would finance, rebuild, expand, operate and maintain the motorway and its extensions in partnership with the government.

He said the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) was sponsoring the project and stressed that it was a demonstration of how institutional and private-sector capital could support major infrastructure development without placing the entire financing burden on the state.

The Chief Resident Engineer of the ATEL Project, Kwabena Bempong, said the project had achieved approximately 53 per cent completion after 805 days, although progress was slightly behind schedule.

He expressed confidence that the contractor, Maripoma Enterprise Limited, would accelerate construction to meet the August 2027 completion date.

Mr Bempong said the project commenced in August 2024 and covers approximately 27.7 kilometres, comprising a 19.5-kilometre section currently under construction, a 5.7-kilometre stretch between Tetteh Quarshie and Apenkwa, and a 2.5-kilometre section of the N6 near the Tesano Police Station towards Achimota.

The first section, he explained, would feature a two-lane, access-controlled expressway alongside an urban highway with three lanes in each direction, adding that selected portions would widen to five lanes in each direction to facilitate merging and movement between the two roads.

The project also includes improvements to interchanges at Tetteh Quarshie, Teshie, Community 18 and Lashibi, alongside pedestrian crossing facilities.

During a site inspection, the Project Manager, Benjamin Sackey, said concrete structures were approximately 70 per cent complete.

The Deputy Managing Director for Investment at the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), Bennett Akantoa, described the launch of the ATEL website as a significant milestone that would improve public access to information on the Accra-Tema Motorway and Extensions Project.

Senior Partner of AB and David Africa and a member of the project’s Independent Project Advisory team, David Ofosu-Dorte, said the project had undergone several financing and procurement processes since 2019 before the current PPP arrangement was established.

He said earlier assessments had identified a funding viability gap of nearly $100 million, while the cancellation of road tolls in November 2021 had affected investor confidence.

Mr Ofosu-Dorte said the project was subsequently phased to enable the first section to be developed and establish a basis for financing subsequent sections.

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