A call for tenders for the building of two flyovers at the congested Kappara junction has been issued by the government’s department of contracts.
The call, published in last Friday’s edition of the Government Gazette, refers to the construction of a “grade-separated junction”. The tender closes on November 11 at 9.30am and is part-financed by the European Union.
The project has been in the pipeline for many years and was worked upon by previous Road Departments. In 1996, a permit for a proposed flyover was approved but the project never materialised.
Last year Transport Malta obtained a planning permit to have two flyovers connecting one side of the Regional Road to the other, while retaining the roundabout.
The plan was for the works to start in July and last 18 months, but a transport spokesman had said “start dates are entirely dependent on the tendering and evaluation process”.
The aim of the ambitious project is to ease traffic – currently the junction handles around 6,000 vehicles an hour during peak times. The original cost of the scheme was estimated to be around €25 million but the transport authority had admitted last year it was going to cost more without revealing the final figure.
The works will be divided into phases to allow traffic to use two lanes in each direction during construction. The roundabout will initially be removed and a temporary one created near the junction at Zammit Clapp Hospital, retaining a number of key traffic movements.
Some of the traffic along Sliema Road will be diverted through alternative routes.
The overpasses will be constructed in the final phases with all the underlying works, including services infrastructure, already completed.
Always a controversial project, the transport authority had presented a modified version of its so-called Option A proposal. This represented something of a turnaround, as the authority had been saying it preferred a second proposal, Option B, which eliminated the existing roundabout and replaced it with a new route.
This would have included a new roundabout on the Gżira side of Sliema Road, a signalled junction on the San Ġwann side and a bridge passing over Għollieqa Valley.
However, the planning authority’s environment unit had slammed Option B, saying it would eat into the valley.