Abstract:
There is a growing awareness that road development has major environmental impact.
The damage includes sensitive ecosystems, loss of productive agricultural lands, and
resettlement of large numbers of people, permanent disruption of local economic
activities, demographic change, accelerated urbanization, and introduction of disease.
This dissertation presents the impact of road construction on the environment in the
Kintampo Municipality of Ghana and the challenges the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) faces in the enforcement of environmental mitigation measures. The
researcher reached the goals of this research through a questionnaire and interview with
17 respondents and 2 participants respectively. The response rate was (85%) percent. The
respondents are selected personnel from public institutions and road construction firms
who are directly involved in road operations in the Kintampo Municipality and field
observation from January to June 2016. The participants were the municipal officers and
national service personnel from EPA. The Likert scale was used to rank the various
environmental impacts. The data fed into computer was then analyzed using the
Statistical Programme for Social Scientists (SPSS) version 21.0 and spreadsheet (Excel of
Microsoft Office 2013). This study identified that useful mitigation measures for
controlling noise and ground movement were poorly manage hence the accidents on the
road. In conclusion, the gross of environmental impacts associated with road construction
projects identified in this research such as accident, noise and ground movement and air
pollution can assist road project managers and contractors to identify the most critical
environmental impacts during road construction operations. It is therefore recommended
that issues of pollution prevention be a priority to the Government and hence allocate
more resources should be allocated to the EPA to intensify its monitoring duties.
Description:
A Dissertation in the DEPARTMENT OF CONSTRUCTION AND WOOD
TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION, Faculty of TECHNICAL EDUCATION,
Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, University of Education, Winneba in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Award of the Master of Technology
Education (Construction Technology) Degree