By Arfang M.S. Camara,
Communications Officer (NRA).
The Managing Director of the National Roads Authority (NRA), Mr. Ousman Sanyang stated that his Authority (NRA) wants to do as much as they can to complete a few of the roads of the ongoing construction of the 50km Urban Road projects.
The NRA boss was speaking in an interview during their visits to the ongoing construction of the 50km Urban Road project Lot 1 held on Thursday 28th March 2024.
Mr. Sanyang and his NRA delegation together with the consultant (PACE/GAMECS JV) and the Contractor (SSTP, CSE and AL-FAD JV) of the Lot 1 projects visited eight of the ongoing construction areas under the Lot.
The entourage began the tour at P16 – which connects Kanifing Hospital to GTMI road 0.75km; P2 – which links the Kanifing Hospital to Bertil Harding (Methodist) and Estate Road 2.80km; P19 – which started from Kairaba Avenue (former IEC) to Banjul/Serrekunda Highway (GTTI) 1.96km; P1 – which connects from GPPC to New Jeshwang (GACEM Junction) and Jokor Junction 2.56km.
The delegation also proceeded to P3- 2.80km road project which started from GPPC road to Westfield (Jokor) to Abuko and the Abuko Concrete Road; P15 – 2.68km Bundung Highway Road project; P12 – 2.31km Rev. J.C Faye (Saffiedine) Road and P10 – 1.26km road project which started from Sukuta Junction Ba to Bakoteh Hermann Gmeiner Road (Amsterdam) respectively.
“Overall, I am pleased with the level of progress on the ongoing constructions. But I think we can do a bit more in terms of pushing ahead and trying to progress as much as we can to complete some roads completely before the rainy season,” said the NRA Managing Director during an interview.
He expressed delight to be back on a site visit again to the ongoing constructions of Lot 1, noting that he is now planning to visit the construction sites once every month to inspect and monitor the works.
“The ongoing works are progressing compared to the last visit. The construction projects in an urban environment where we are retrofitting have quite a lot of challenges, especially in terms of the already built environment which encroaches on the highway which needs to be demolished as well as service relocations.”
According to him, there are other key challenges at the moment in terms of getting the right of way cleared so that the contractor can start the work. Also, the contractor is touching on a lot of places at the same time, which he noted is not helping in terms of completing work on time.
“We want to concentrate more on one area at a time and try to complete those roads one at a time to minimise destruction to residents,” he said, adding that they are very careful about clearing or widening the right of way to make the places more habitable and conducive for people to also stay.
“Although they are temporary conditions, we want to make it as pleasurable as possible for them. We are very mindful of making people leave in a condition that could be challenging, especially those who live in an area for a very long time.”
Mr Sanyang, an experienced Chartered Transport Planner and Engineer said is very important to see the contractors start doing the access to properties as well as putting in the footways, saying that these are important considerations to take into account when doing these types of roads.
