Smart City road to have massive environmental effect

14,500 square metres of agriculture land, the fragmentation of land parcels, the destruction of trees and rubble walls, the risk of development along the new road and a surge in pollution in Fgura are listed among the negative consequences of a road linked to a project which was supposed to lack any impact on the environment.

Studies deem the construction of the new road as a direct consequence of the Smart City Development, claiming that “SmartCity Malta will not be able to operate properly, given the poor road links that access the project.”

The studies show that 24 farmers, mostly tilling the land on a part-time basis, will be affected by the development. The development will also result in the dismantling of rubble walls, the uprooting of a number of trees and the destruction of rural structures.

It will also split the Tal-Fata agriculture area into two blocks of land, while introducing traffic pollution in to the heartland of Tal-Fata.

The EIA warns that the new road increases the danger of land speculation unless stringent conditions are imposed to ban development along the new road are imposed.

But the document claims that the new traffic expected because of the opening of SmartCity Malta “is of such magnitude” that the new road is needed. 

The road also diverts traffic from the historical town centres of Cospicua, Vittoriosa and Kalkara.

But the new road will also “pump huge amounts of new traffic” into junctions which are already at over capacity, and which already handle traffic from Zabbar and Marsaskala in to densely populated Fgura.

“Driving through Fgura is already very problematic at present and the link road on its own will make things much worse for the inhabitants of this town… creating much more pollution than at present, with the obvious negative consequences on the health of the local population.”

But the EIA warns that if the road is not build the amount of traffic passing through Cottonera and Zabbar will also increase and that the new road will reduce emissions in these localities.

The new road will also create the need for another road linking Hompesh Gate in Fgura to the present junction in Tal-Barrani in Tarxien. Another road will link the Capuchin convent to Smart City.