By Arfang M.S. Camara, Communications Officer, NRA
The Managing Director of the National Roads Authority (NRA), Ousman Sanyang, said the Authority wants to do as much as they can, to complete a few of the ongoing roads being constructed among the 50km Urban Road projects.
Mr Sanyang was speaking in an interview during a visit to ongoing construction works of the 50km Urban Road project’s Lot 1, held on Thursday, 28th March 2024.
Mr. Sanyang and 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 and 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 starts from Sukuta Junction Ba to Bakoteh Hermann Gmeiner Road (Amsterdam).
“Overall, I am pleased with the level of progress of the ongoing construction works. 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 before the rainy season starts,” Sanyang said.
He expressed delight on his site visit noting that he now plans to visit the construction sites once every month, in order to inspect and monitor the works.
“The ongoing works are progressing compared to my 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, some of which needs to be demolished and relocated,” he said.
According to him, there are other key challenges at the moment in terms of getting the way cleared so that the contractor can start work. Also, he said the contractor is touching a lot of places at the same time, which he noted is not helping in terms of completing the work on time.
“We want to concentrate more on one area at a time and try to complete the roads one at a time to minimise the destruction for residents,” he said, adding that they are very careful about clearing or widening of the way in order to make the place 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 live in a condition that could be challenging, especially those who have lived in an area for a very long time,” he said.
Mr Sanyang, an experienced Chartered Transport Planner and Engineer said it is important to see the contractors´ work on the access to properties as well as putting in the foot paths, saying these are important considerations to take into account when doing these type of road works.
