The Tema Motorway officially known as the N1 Highway is a highway that links

Tema Tema is a city on the Bight of Benin and Atlantic coast of Ghana. It is located east of the capital city; Accra, in the region of Greater Accra, and is the capital of the Tema Metropolitan District. As of 2013, Tema is the eleventh most popul ...

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

—capital of

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. It is the only motorway in Ghana. , is a major highway in Ghana that connects the capital city of Accra with the industrial city of Tema.

History

The highway was opened to traffic in November 1965 to link the harbour city of Tema to Accra. It was built under the administration of

Kwame Nkrumah Kwame Nkrumah (born 21 September 190927 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957. An in ...

, the first president of Ghana. Its construction was fashioned after the

Autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...

in Germany and was purposed to be the first in motorway systems that would link major towns and cities in Ghana.

Streetlights

A major problem that existed on the motorway and still exists is the lack of street lights. The motorway had no streetlights when it was completed in 1964. In June 2002, the Ghana News Agency reported that the Government of Ghana was to spend 1.95 million cedis to light up the motorway. The project was to commemorate the country's Golden Jubilee in 2007. The project had challenges that delayed its completion of the Accra–Tema Motorway. It was suspended due to cable thefts. The problem led to plain-clothed

policemen A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

patrolling the motorway. Unfortunately, not all of the mounted streetlights on the motorway are functional.

Motorway campaigns

In 2009,

Adom FM Adom FM is a privately owned radio station in Accra, the capital of Ghana. The station is owned and run by the media group company Multimedia Group Limited. The word ''Adom'' in the Twi dialect means ''grace''. Adom FM organizes the annual gospe ...

, an Accra-based private radio station embarked on a campaign to educate users of the motorway on dangers that faced commuters on the multi-purpose highway. The education included the rampant criminal activities on the motorway, the unsafe bridges, the potholes, stolen side-rails, malfunctioning streetlights, lack of reflectors, broken-down vehicles, and

road safety Road traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured. Typical road users include pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, vehicle passengers, horse riders, and passengers of on-road ...

Rehabilitation of the motorway

In August, 2009, rehabilitation work began on the road and was to cost 500,000 cedis. Part of the motorway was to be reconstructed using

epoxy cement Epoxy is the family of basic components or Curing (chemistry), cured end products of epoxy resins. Epoxy resins, also known as polyepoxides, are a class of reactive prepolymers and polymers which contain epoxide groups. The epoxide functional ...

. The rehabilitation work took eight weeks and involved the removal and replacement of the concrete slabs which had developed potholes and the repair of the

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

surface on shoulders of the road.

References

{{Ghana Roads and Interchanges Roads in Ghana