From Richard Owusu-Akyaw.
The Ministry of Roads and Highways, through the Kumasi Urban Roads Department, has contracted an Australian firm, Waagner-Biro Bridge Systems, to construct a pedestrian steel arch footbridge at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) junction.
The Metro Director of the Urban Roads, Ing. Theodore Quaye, who spoke to the Ashanti File, said the project is being funded by the Central Government, and it is being rolled out simultaneously in the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions. According to Ing. Quaye, the construction of the footbridge will help to control and manage traffic at the congested junction, and enable pedestrians to cross from one end to the other, and vice versa, without using the road.
He said the Urban Roads Department had met stakeholders, which included the Ghana Highways Authority, Road Safety Commission, traditional leaders, traders and drivers who operate in the area, ahead of the construction of the steel footbridge, to know the nature of the project. The Urban Roads Director, however, bemoaned the rate at which people politicise issues as being terrible, saying this is a project aimed at easing and controlling pedestrian and vehicular traffic.