Existing ‘dirt road’ to link Zabbar to Smart City

The agreement with Smart City on the relocation of the American University of Malta campus from Zonqor, includes an obligation on government to construct a new connection road linking Bieb is-Sultan in Zabbar, to the Cappuchin’s convent in Kalkara.

A 643m dual carriageway linking the two landmarks was already proposed in 2007. But as proposed, the road would have resulted in the loss of 14,500sq.m of agricultural land in the scenic Tal-Fata area in Zabbar. 

Now, a spokesperson for economy minister Silvio Schembri revealed that an existing dirt road is now being considered for the road link. “Government is exploring a different route from that proposed in the 2007 application, utilising an existing dirt road instead of passing the road right through agricultural land at tal-Fata as originally proposed in 2007,” a spokesperson confirmed. 

The ministry did not give any further details on the proposed road link, which is bound to impact on land adjacent to the dirt road. A new planning application outlining the new route still has to be presented.

The application presented in 2007 had already been subjected to an Environment Impact Assessment in 2010, which confirmed the negative impact on agricultural land, while arguing that the road was required to avoid congestion and increased pollution resulting from an increase of traffic in the area. 

The application was never withdrawn but has been dormant since 2010.

One of the EIA studies concluded that 24 farmers, mostly tilling the land on a part-time basis, would have been affected by the development proposed in 2007. The development would have resulted in the dismantling of rubble walls, the uprooting of a number of trees and the destruction of rural structures.

Moreover, the road would have split the Tal-Fata agriculture area into two blocks of land, while introducing traffic pollution in to the heartland of Tal-Fata. But the document claimed that the new traffic expected because of the opening of Smart City Malta “is of such magnitude” that the new road is needed. But the EIA also warned that in absence of a proposed upgrade of the Tal-Barrani junction the project would have created more problems in Fgura and Zabbar.

The idea of relocating the road from arable land to fallow land nearer to the Cottonera fortifications was already considered in EIA studies published in 2010 and was originally proposed by Department of Agriculture in 2007.

But the proposal was firmly objected to by the Superitendence for Cultural Heritage due to the proximity to the Cottonera lines, a complex system of fortifications designed by Italian engineer Antonio Maurizio Valperga in the 17th Century, and named after Grand Master Nicolas Cottoner