GHA IMPORTS 4 WEIGHING SCALES ... (Page 43)

Story: Rose Hayford Darko, Tema


THE Ghana Highway Authority has imported four potable mobile weighing bridges at a cost of GH¢100,000 to monitor vehicle axle loads and check trucks which avoid the use of approved weighing points on the roads.
The equipment, which had arrived at the airport, were in the process of being cleared and would start operations immediately.
This was made known by the Director of Road Safety and Environment of the Ghana Highway Authority, Mr Joe Fred Peseo, in an interview at Tema when he inspected the Tema end of the motorway.
He expressed concern about the rate at which the country’s roads were deteriorating because of excessive loading of trucks.
He said about 100 drivers were prosecuted and fined a total of GH¢20,000 for having excessive axle load between August and December 2007 in Tema.
Mr Peseo said the Highway Authority had plans to construct a platform on the Tema-Accra beach road to be used at random to check the axle load of heavy duty vehicles which avoid the use of the motorway.
He further said an infrastructure was currently being constructed at the Tema Axle Control Station and upon its completion it would ensure that all excess loads were offloaded before trucks continued their trips.
A tour of the roads revealed that some of the heavy duty trucks conveying goods from the port and industries diverted their course from the use of the motorway to avoid being weighed on the bridge.
It was also observed that these trucks had also rendered the overpass linking the Accra Abattoir and the Ministry of Agriculture Livestock Breeding Unit on the motorway weak, though some obstacles had been mounted at both ends to prevent motorists from using it.
Mr Peseo appealed to drivers to adhere to laid down rules regarding the extent of loading and also ensure that their trucks were weighed to increase the lifespan of the roads.