Rain turns Accra-Kasoa road into daily nightmare

This year’s rains have turned the Accra-Kasoa highway into a commuter’s nightmare.

What should be a 45-minute drive from Kasoa to Accra now stretches into 3 to 4 hours of stop-and-go frustration, missed meetings, and lost income.

The reason is simple but devastating, as repeated downpours have carved deep potholes into the stretch, leaving sections of the road virtually unmotorable.

For Kasoa residents who work, school, or trade in Accra, the road is no longer a link; rather, a barrier.

Every morning, thousands queue for hours, hoping a trotro or taxi will brave the situation, but often difficult.

Drivers avoid the worst sections, fares double without warning, and those who do get on the road spend more time stationary than moving.

By the time they reach Accra, the workday is half gone, and after a hard day’s work faces an uphill task, obviously how to get a car.

The damage is worst at three choke points: Ataala, Mallam Junction, and the Tollbooth area near Kasoa Ridge.

At Kasoa Ridge, even light rain washes silt and debris from the nearby hills straight onto the carriageway.

The road drains clog instantly, water pools, and within minutes a shallow stream becomes a flood.

Cars crawl through murky water, engines stall, and traffic backs up for kilometers.

Mallam Junction is worse. Massive potholes have opened up where asphalt has collapsed under years of pressure and poor drainage. When it rains, those potholes become lakes. Drivers swerve, brake suddenly, and gridlock spreads in both directions. What used to be a busy but flowing intersection is now a daily parking lot where commuters lose hours of productive time.

The knock-on effects are brutal as students miss lectures. Traders arrive after peak sales hours. Workers face salary deductions for lateness. Emergency vehicles struggle to navigate. And every day the road deteriorates further, because water + traffic + unfilled potholes = faster decay.

Residents and commuters are not asking for a full reconstruction overnight. They are asking for urgency. Their call is clear: government must intervene now with temporary measures.

That means grading and filling the worst potholes, clearing blocked drains, desilting Kasoa Ridge, and deploying traffic officers to manage the gridlock during peak hours. These are stopgap fixes, but they would restore basic mobility while a permanent solution is planned.

The Accra-Kasoa corridor is one of Ghana’s busiest economic arteries.

It moves workers, goods, students, and patients every single day. When it fails, Accra feels it. When it floods, families lose income.

Sarah Aduyaw, a Kasoa resident and a petty trader at Makola, said this road needs immediate government attention.

She has been on a temporary break as a result of the situation, remarked that the Kasoa Road should not be abandoned until the next budget cycle, not after another study.

Mr Kofi Ampah, a self employed said the situation is affecting his pocket because every rain that falls without action is another day of lost productivity, another day of stress, and another reminder that infrastructure is not just concrete but a livelihood.