The absence of accurate records on underground utility infrastructure is creating avoidable challenges for road construction projects, Roads and Highways Minister Governs Kwame Agbodza has said.
He said the lack of reliable “as-built” drawings showing the location of buried water pipelines, electricity cables and telecommunications fibre made it difficult for road contractors to safely undertake excavation works.
Mr Agbodza made the observation during an inspection of road projects in the Ashanti Region.
He said the Ministry of Roads and Highways and its agencies engaged utility and telecommunications companies before road construction commenced to identify infrastructure located within road rights-of-way.
He explained that service providers were expected to identify and, where necessary, relocate their infrastructure before construction began.
However, he said the absence of accurate drawings often meant contractors only discovered underground services after work had commenced.
“Ideally, every service that is buried or overhead should have had as-built drawings. So even without speaking to the people, you know what is buried elsewhere,” he said.
Mr Agbodza said the situation could result in damage to critical infrastructure and disrupt services, despite efforts by road agencies to coordinate with utility companies.
He rejected suggestions that road construction agencies deliberately damaged utility infrastructure, saying contractors depended on information from service providers to identify the location of buried facilities.
“We are not in the business of going around the country and recklessly destroying pipelines or electricity connections or telcos, telecom, fibre optics and other things,” he said.
According to him, when utility companies provided accurate information and guidance, road agencies were able to work around existing infrastructure or facilitate its relocation.
He said the Ministry would, however, take steps to restore damaged services at a reasonable cost where necessary.
The Minister therefore urged the Ghana Water Company, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and telecommunications operators to make accurate infrastructure records a standard requirement for contractors and subcontractors after completing utility projects.
“Whenever your cables are buried, and you see us, or when we ask for data, please provide us,” he said.
Mr Agbodza said the records should also be made available to road agencies whenever utility infrastructure was located close to road corridors.
He said such information would enable potential conflicts between road projects and utility infrastructure to be identified and addressed before construction began, reducing disruptions and avoidable costs.
