Transport Malta asked to revise Coast Road plan for Qalet Marku

Although the planning authority (MEPA) is expected to approve a proposed widening of the Coast Road to a dual carriageway in a board meeting set for 9 August, no decision is expected to be taken on the proposed junction in the ecologically sensitive Qalet Marku area.

This is because the Planning Directorate is calling on Transport Malta to revise its plans for this road junction in the ecologically sensitive area.

One of the conditions proposed by the directorate in the case officer's report for the road widening is that no approval is given for the Qalet Marku plan in the forthcoming board meeting.

On its part, the Environment Directorate has already objected to this part of the road project, as the proposed junction will damage at least one-fifth of the remnant saline marshland, which is a Level 1 scheduled area - the highest protection afforded.

According to the proposed permit condition, Transport Malta will have two months to review their proposal and find an alternative solution, which will require less land take-up and will have to protect the marshland at Qalet Marku.

MEPA will be bound to take a decision on this section of the road in four months.

"Should the board not agree with the proposal, the stretch of road in Qalet Marku will remain as it is (today) and Transport Malta will have to present a new application," the case officer report states.

But MEPA justifies the project, which will which will take 56,000 square metres of land, as providing a safer road design in accordance to international standards of safety.

Initially, the project faced opposition by farmers in Burmarrad as the original proposal passed through farmland in the agricultural area near Kennedy Grove. But the proposal will still result in the loss of agricultural land at the area known as il-Gonna tal-Barbier.

The proposal set for MEPA's approval will involve shifting further inland the part of Triq is-Salini that is currently located directly adjacent to the salt pans. This will result in a larger buffer between the salt pans and the road as long as the redundant road can also be "reverted back to nature".

But this option will still come at the cost of agricultural land on the other side of the road. Moreover, this option also entails the closure and decommissioning of the link-road leading directly from Triq is-Salini to the Qawra residential area. This presents an opportunity to reinstate the land currently occupied by the road surface to its previous state.

Furthermore, throughout most of Kennedy Drive, the chosen option involves road widening, as opposed to a total shift of Kennedy Drive as proposed previously. This would have resulted in a greater loss of fields at the hinterland of the Natura 2000 site at Kennedy Grove and the salt pans.

The development will still result in the loss of 1,682 trees, which will have to be removed and replanted.