BOLGATANGA BAWKU
PULMAKOM ROAD
GHANA
Project Justification
The Bolgatanga-Bawku-Pulmakom Road Project involves the improvement of 109km of road in the Upper East Region of Ghana, benefiting more than 750,000 people directly. The rehabilitation of the road has been designed to help improve road safety, reduce travel times, facilitate trade and movement of goods and as a result stimulate economic development in the region, a crossroads of traditional trans-Saharan trade routes. The Project stretches from Bolgatanga town through Bawku to Pulmakom (close to Togo’s and Burkina Faso’s borders) crossing a number of settlements.
QGMI scope of work includes the following:
- Reconstruction of the road between Bolgatanga and Pulimakom with 109 km in double surface treatment, except for the first 2 km in Bolgatanga, which will be paved with asphalt.
- Construction of a bypass in Bawku to reroute heavy vehicle traffic out of the busy town centre.
- Development of three new bridges at the existing bridge locations at Bolga, Tilli and Bazua, likely to be parallel to the existing ones.
The road rehabilitation is being carried out in line with the IFC Environmental and Social Performance Standards. This includes biodiversity studies in key sections of the road corridor with a team of academic researchers from the Kumasi National University of Science and Technology, Department of Wildlife and Range Management. The biodiversity survey work will implement measures that help to protect sensitive species whose habitats are in proximity to the existing road corridor – during construction and then in operation. In addition, Resettlement Action Plans will be prepared and implemented for sections of the road to adequately compensate people whose land, crops or structures will need to be acquired in the process of widening or building parts of the road or bypass, respectively.