PORT OF TEMA.

Abstract

The need for a second deep water port in Ghana was precipitated by the proposal made in 1951 to establish an aluminium industry as a vital part of the Volta River Project. Logistical considerations indicated a site near the capital, Accra. The shore in this vicinity, fully exposed to the Atlantic Ocean, offered no obvious site and many early investigators had rejected it as unsuitable. Accra harbour had silted up. Nevertheless, a small embayment at Tema which gave some shelter to the canoes of a fishing community seventeen miles east of Accra was investigated and deemed capable of development, provided an adequate source of rock could be found for the construction of breakwaters. This was located 20 miles north in the Shai Hills and the decision to build a new four-berth, deep water port at Tema was taken in 1952. The Paper records the history of the creation of this port and the town which was its necessary accompaniment, from the construction of the preliminary road, rail and service connexions in 1952-4, to the completion, by the end of 1965, of twelve deep water berths, an oil berth, a small dry dock and slipways, and a large fishing harbour, with all the supporting land installations required of a modern port, and the start of a 900 ft long graving dock and modern shipbuilding and shipbreaking yards. 17400 ft of rock breakwaters, whose form was determined by hydraulic model tests, and massive rock dredging were features of the development, and a new and economical design of concrete block wall was devised for the 11600 ft of quays which were built.