The Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority (GPHA) has awarded a US$ 400,000 contract for the study and design of a four-lane dual carriageway to the Tema Harbour.

The GPHA, under the consulting contract, which would commence in February, expects Louis Berger S.A.S and Transtech Consult Ghana Limited, the consulting firms, to design the four-lane road which would have a fly-over starting from the rail crossing at Tema Community three, over the Sakumo Lagoon through the Nungua-Ashaiman road to the motor way.

Captain James Owusu Koranteng, Acting Director of Takoradi Port and Acting GPHA Director General, announced this at a press conference on Tuesday on behalf of Mr Richard Anamoo, Director General of the GPHA.

Capt Koranteng said it was expected that dedicated and highly efficient roads would be developed under the contract to facilitate the movement of cargo and people through the Tema Port cluster.

He noted that the design of the four-lane dual carriageway was very urgent, as the only two access roads to the Tema Port; the motorway and the Tema General Hospital road have become too inadequate to cope with the port traffic volumes.

He added that as the GPHA would embark on the planned expansion of the Tema Port, access to the harbour has become very critical for its efficient operation.

The Ag Director-General gave the assurance that the Environmental Protection Agency has given it the red light for the construction of the dual carriage road after it conducted studies on the effects of the intended construction on aquatic life in the lagoon.

He indicated that the award of the contract to Louis Berger was done after it went through the public procurement process from December 2012.

On the intended expansion of the Tema Port, he announced that GPHA would use the next four months to do detailed evaluation of valid bids offers received from seven bidders which include a Ghanaian company.

Capt Koranteng said the bid values ranged from US$ 489 million to over two billion US dollars depending on the phasing arrangement selected by the bidder.

He explained that the GPHA International Competitive Tender began in March 2013 with calls for Expression of Interest (EoI) during which 53 internationally recognized entities and joint ventures expressed interest for the expansion works.

Twenty-one bidders, which include two Ghanaian companies, were pre-qualified by the GPHA after the evaluation of the Expression of Interest.

The Ag Director-General said the 19 out of the 21 companies proceeded to procure the tender documents which defined the general scope and concept of the proposed expansion of the Tema Port at a cost of US$ 2,500.00 in July 2013.

Each bidder, he indicated, was required to prepare the detailed engineering designs with cost estimates, procure the necessary credit facility to fund the project and upon qualification, construct the works with GPHA as the borrower of the credit facility.

Captain Koranteng stated that pre-bid conferences were held after which some of the bidders withdrew their interests leaving seven bid offers, which were opened on Monday January 27.

The Tema Port expansion project is planned to be done in five phases with phase one taking care of the main basic port infrastructure, which would involve the breakwater, dredging to adequate depths and quay wall foundation trenches.

“GPHA intends to develop at least five new berths under the phase one, that is, two for containers, two for multi-purpose and Ro-Ro and one dedicated berth to passenger and cruise vessels”.

He indicated that phases two, three and four would add up more container terminals and food/fruit terminals to the cluster, while phase five would target the oil rigs market along the West African coast.

When completed, the planned expansion would provide deep berths from the current 11.5 metres to 16 metres depths to receive bigger ships.