[WATCH] €14.2 million spent on second phase of Marsa junction project

The phase of the Marsa junction project involving the widening a number of roads and junctions, along the Marsa bypass will be completed in the coming days, in time for the new scholastic year, Infrastructure minister Ian Borg said.

Addressing a press conference on Saturday morning Borg said that the works - which ran from the Santa Venera tunnel, continuing along the Marsa Hamrun bypass, up until Also Moro road – cost €14.2 million and included upgrades to 10 junctions and over 15km of new or rebuilt lanes.

Borg said the works would contribute to reduced travelling times, increased road safety and an improvement in air quality in surrounding localities. He stressed that road widening was necessary in order remove bottlenecks along the route.

He said that some 4.3km of crash barriers, 2.8km of pavements and 400m of cycle lanes had been included in the project, which required 25,300 tonnes of new asphalt.

Borg thanked Infrastructure Malta’s contractors and technical experts for “working tirelessly to reach set goals and to finish as much of the work as they could before the beginning of the scholastic year”.

“Our commitment is to continue striving to give Maltese and Gozitan people the infrastructure we promised – infrastructure of the highest quality with safe and efficient connections which cater for different modes of transport; infrastructure which – at the end of the day – befits a country and a people in constant progress,” Borg said.

The minister stressed that most of the works were carried out during the summer months, after Infrastructure Malta increased project resources to complete them ahead of schedule.

The widening of the Marsa-Ħamrun bypass, he said, was originally scheduled to be ready in 2019, but the extensive works involved, including the building of two new lanes and the rebuilding of road’s central strip, were completed several months in advance.

Besides the re-alignment and widening of existing roads Borg said the projects also included the development of over 38 kilometres of new underground water, electricity and telecommunication network cable and pipes, to replace existing ones and to introduce new capacity for future requirements.

Some of these networks, including high voltage electricity cables, were placed in 1.5 kilometres of newly-built walk-through underground culverts, which will facilitate future maintenance and repairs without the need to dig up the new road surfaces.

Another 3.8 kilometres of underground stormwater pipes and culverts were installed beneath the new roads as well, the minister said, adding that Infrastructure Malta had developed 2.8 kilometres of new pavements, rebuilt six bus lay-bys in a safer design and installed over four kilometres of new vehicle restraint systems (crash barriers) and 350 pole-mounted street lighting luminaires along the projects’ 2.5-kilometre road corridor.

A 400-metre cycle lane was introduced in Triq Aldo Moro, to eventually link to other cycling-friendly infrastructure being developed in other ongoing and upcoming projects along the same route, Borg said.

This will include the development of the new seven-flyover intersection instead of the Addolorata Cemetery traffic lights junction, the rebuilding of part of Vjal Santa Luċija and the introduction of two new tunnels as part of the Santa Luċija roundabout project, and the rebuilding of Triq Ħal Luqa linking this roundabout to Luqa and Gudja.      

Finally, Borg noted that Infrastructure Malta had already completed an upgrade to Żebbuġ’s two main roundabouts and the widening of Triq l-Imdina, an upgrade of the T-junction linking Triq tal-Barrani with Gudja and Għaxaq, and the widening and upgrade of part of T’Alla u Ommu Hill linking Burmarrad to the Birguma area of Naxxar.

The widening of Vjal l-Avjazzjoni, between Gudja and Luqa, the rebuilding of Triq Bormla between Żabbar and Żejtun and of Triq tal-Balal between Naxxar and San Ġwann and the upgrade of the Mosta Technopark roundabout were all currently in progress, he concluded.