Wayside Graves, A Hindrance To Road Expansion

Any plans by the Ghanaian authorities to expand the highways, including the busy Kumasi-Accra highway could be stalled in the proximity of towns to the roads. Where the road is seemingly lined with only vegetation, another challenge emerges in the shape of wayside cemeteries.

Coming from Wawase in the environs of Bekwai in the Ashanti region, I spotted a solitary grave engulfed by a wide-expanse of mining activity. I wondered whose remains were so endangered simply by the wrong placement of the grave and wanton disregard for the laws. Re-think the caption on funeral posters and your words in a final repose for the dead. This is because the dead ain’t going to have peaceful rest if their mortal remains are buried at places of buzzing activity or sooner they are going to be caught up in the mess.

Indubitably, between Accra and Kumasi is the busiest of all roads in Ghana as it links not only the two largest cities but also a critical component of the transnational connection to the Sahel region of Africa.

This section of the long stretch bears the highest density of vehicles, and therefore congested all the time. The route witnesses a mobile fleet of heavily loaded articulated trucks and long buses.

It is prone to accidents and highway crime. To lubricate this passage into what the Americans call freeways, the government dualized the part that adjoins Nkawkaw and nearby towns.

This proved a successful experiment providing convenience like no other point on the road. The modification is a replica of what pertains to China. In cross-country rides, motorists in opposite directions do not traverse on the same roads. Each side moves on a distinct passage, ruling out head-on collisions between vehicles.

Communities that are oblivious of future road expansions, have dotted graves along roads, giving the dead no peace from vehicular noise. If the dead had a decision on the location of their graves, I do not think the choice for resting their bones would be locations along busy roads  Only innovative road engineering can save them from the looming sacrilege they have no control over should it occur. Excavation.

In place of forcible excavation to make space for future expansions, engineers probably have to raise pillars for the road to climb over the graveyards. That is quite tricky but feasible.