The Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwame Governs Agbodza, has appealed to utility service providers, including the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Ghana Water Company Limited, to support contractors with the relocation of utility installations along major road corridors to prevent delays in project execution.
Agbodza noted that improved collaboration between road contractors and utility providers would enable contractors to accelerate work on sections of projects affected by the presence of utility lines and other installations.
Speaking during an inspection of road projects in the Eastern, Volta and Oti Regions on Wednesday, July 8, the Minister said delays in relocating utility infrastructure continue to affect the progress of some road projects.
He explained that although provisions are made in road contracts for utility relocation, the process sometimes becomes challenging when the cost involved is significantly high compared to the overall project cost.
“We will just appeal once again to Ghana Water and Electricity Company of Ghana to assist us to do the relocation of these services because they are the ones that are likely to delay the project.
“We have enough time to move those things and we always have some amount of money in the project for this relocation,” he stated.
He further explained that in some instances, the cost of relocating utility installations becomes a major challenge for contractors, affecting the smooth execution of road works.
“It becomes rather difficult when sometimes the cost of the relocation is almost one-third of the project. It’s as if you don’t even know whether we are doing a water project with the road project or doing electricity connection project,” the Minister said.
The Minister therefore urged ECG and Ghana Water to work closely with contractors to ensure that utility relocations are completed quickly, allowing road projects to proceed according to their timelines.
