Dey-Innovations Limited Ghana: Kwame Nkrumah Circle Inter-change Project

Kwame Nkrumah Circle Health and Safety Diagnoses

The Kwame Nkrumah circle project has been going on for a while now, everyday I pass by, I see the change occurring. I believe the area is going to look very beautiful going by the architect drawing that is shown on the project notice.

In reality Circle is still going to be filled with clogged up gutters and over populated hustlers, for now I am just going to concentrate on the on going construction project to bring Nkrumah Circle some level of prestige and to reduce the standing traffic.

Observing as a health and safety consultant with construction background, I appreciate some aspect of the main civil contractor's work ethics with regards to health and safety, placing signage to alert stakeholders of the dangers around, as well as providing safety officers who stop the traffic to allow pedestrians to cross the road.

In some areas, they have fixed safety nets as rails to stop the pedestrians walking onto the road, though this is not complete and some rather high risk areas have been left without the safety net which puts the pedestrians in danger from on coming traffic. Especially towards the overhead bridge to the Achimota side of the road.

Some holes have been left unprotected,
The concrete rods sticking out of the foundation have no protection on them as a sharp edge
The lighting levels around in the dark is also not enough, flood lights could be placed in high risk areas
I have not observed the presence of any security at night to stop tress-passers from getting onto the main work area.

One of the main issues I have though is to do with dust, the risk is heightened as per the ratio of the population around, the number of people exposed to the dust is very high and as such the civil contractor should be able to takes steps to reduce such risk.

The simple measure would be to water the site, three times a day, morning, afternoon and in late afternoon, the inconvenience of the construction project to the traders is to be expected, but the health hazard posed by the dust levels can be avoided.

The traffic flow as can be expected is slow, though that is the very reason why the project is being undertaken and the police are there to manage the traffic through out the day and generally I would say they do a good job, because the public transport drivers are always up to their tricks.

I will admit that with the location and the level of activities being undertaken by the traders around, it is always going to be an uphill task, when it comes to achieving a high level health and safety profile for the construction project, though continuous assessment of the risk exposure would allow for a better hold and a reduction in the risk of fatalities or any other accident occurring.

Before The Start Of The Project