San Gwann business takes a hit after unexpected traffic diversion

Employees of businesses in San Gwann have admitted that their sales have taken a hit after traffic diversions were implemented without notice at Vjal ir-Rihan over the weekend.

They have also complained that they weren’t consulted at all about the diversion – which has blocked vehicles from driving into the centre of San Gwann via the roundabout that forks to San Gwann industrial estate, or to the church – and forced motorists to take a detour around the block instead. 

Barriers have been erected at the roundabout exit, after a YouTube video of cars disregarding the signage and passing through the roundabout regardless went viral.

It has been planned as a temporary diversion, to brace San Gwann for the influx of cars that are set to pass through it during the works on the Kappara Junction project.

“We are usually really busy at the weekend, but our sales were lower this time round,” corner store worker Maria Abela admitted to MaltaToday. “Moreover, we have a serious parking problem, and we don’t even have a loading bay, which means that trucks cannot stop outside the shop.

“Nobody had consulted or even advised us about the diversion beforehand. Everything took place at night and we just found the diversion in place when we woke up. Several clients at our shop have complained about how nobody had told them anything about the traffic intentions.”

Similarly, hardware store employee Matthew Calleja admitted that sales took a dive over the weekend.

“The diversions certainly had a role to play, because the roads have been turned around and there is now less parking in the area; we’ll have to wait and see whether it will have a long-term effect,” he said. “We had no idea about the planned works and nobody had told us anything about it. We just saw them setting up and working here last weekend and we didn’t even know what was going on.”

Marine store owner Alexander d’Agata said that the diversion could ease traffic flows in the typically congested street but added he was disappointed at the lack of consultation with local businesses.

“Although the diversion has slightly eased traffic flows, it has created a bottleneck in the side street [Triq R. Caruana Dingli] where cars are now being diverted into. My biggest disapproval though is the lack of consultation with people who work in the area; we could have given input on how to improve the diversion.”

Their arguments were echoed by a number of other workers in the vicinity who spoke to MaltaToday but who refused to go public with their complaints.  

Opposition MP Kristy Debono last night lashed out at the government for failing to consult or inform San Gwann residents and businesses, or the local council.

“The government arrogantly bulldozed over everyone as though they didn’t even exist,” she said in Parliament. “It likes telling us about how pro-business it is, so how could it have not realized the enormous impact that the diversion would have on San Gwann businesses?”

She argued that bus drivers weren’t even informed about the diversion, and said that she saw a driver have to stop in the road to ask a Transport Malta marshal were he could pass from.

She also warned that Triq Salvu Busuttil, the side street into which vehicles are now being diverted, has turned overnight from a residential road into a traffic-congested one.

“This is a mirror image of the problems caused by recent traffic deviations in Ta’ Xbiex,” Debono told MaltaToday. “It is crystal clear that whoever designed the diversions was not familiar with the locality.” 

‘Transport Malta had originally proposed felling trees’

San Gwann mayor Etienne Bonello Dupuis said that the local council had pushed for the current diversion, after hearing of Transport Malta’s original plans to establish a T-junction in front of Triq Salvu Busuttil, removing a traffic island with three trees in the process.

“I have no problem bashing Transport Malta when they deserve to be bashed, but they don’t deserve it in this case,” he told MaltaToday. “The chaos over the weekend was due to drivers ignoring the signs and the traffic markings. If Transport Malta erect the signs, then it’s not their fault if people ignore them.”

Indeed, he said that vehicles can now exit more freely from Triq Caruana Dingli and that the diversion should become permanent if it proves effective in countering traffic flows.

Similarly, Transport Malta said that the diversion would ease traffic flows in the usually congested area.

“The benefits will be a better traffic flow at the node between Triq Caruana Dingli and Vjal ir-Rihan and the elimination of long traffic queues on Triq Caruana Dingli which would otherwise have to wait to find gaps to exit onto Vjal ir-Rihan,” a TM spokesperson told MaltaToday.

“Viewed holistically and once fully operational, spreading across the neighbouring localities of Gzira, Msida, Swieqi, Sliema, Gharghur, Naxxar, San Gwann and parts of Birkirkara, the entire traffic management scheme is expected to ease traffic flows generally associated with infrastructural projects of this size and magnitude.”