Traffic Signalisation System to be Upgraded

Published on 20th October, 2009, Daily Graphic pg......

Story: Matilda Attram & Ayisha Dah
THE Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) is set change the traffic signalisation system in the metropolis to improve the present method of operation.
The project, which will help in the regulation of traffic systems in traffic-prone areas, such as the Kwame Nkrumah Avenue, the Kanda Highway, the Liberation Road, the Obasanjo Highway and Ring Road Central, will be completed by the end of this year.
The new system will include a computerised technique to aid in the identification of faulty traffic lights, as well as help track careless motorists who damage them.
The Traffic Engineer of the Accra Metropolitan Roads Department of the Department of Urban Roads, Mr Godwin Kalenshie, disclosed this to the Daily Graphic.
According to him, the new traffic system would be two-way powered, using electricity and supported by solar to sustain its current during power outages.
He noted that the increase in population had outweighed the present traffic system, hence the need to update the system.
“Vehicular traffic has grown beyond the present traffic system and this calls for replacement if the problem of heavy traffic is to be solved,” he said.
Presently, Mr Kalenshie said, careless motorists who damaged traffic lights in the metropolis were made to pay for the repairs if they were apprehended, adding that in cases of run away motorists, the state paid.