The road running parallel to a section of Chadwick Lakes will be reopened within weeks, more than three years after it collapsed.

While works on the 20-metre stretch of road running through Wied il-Qlejgħa were meant to be completed last July, the Energy and Water Authority, one of the entities tasked with the regeneration of the area, said repairs have been hampered by continuous structural issues caused by erosion.

“We would repair one thing, and another issue would pop up. We’re dealing with a site containing up to 35,000 cubic metres of water,” CEO Manuel Sapiano said.

“However, the major repair work has now been completed, and workers are adding the finishing touches such as the road surface.”

Sapiano said the structure of the new road factored in the constant erosion, with piles anchoring the road’s surface to its foundations, which had previously consisted only of loose stones. The valley’s embankments have also been reinforced.

The road is also designed to withstand all types of traffic, including heavy vehicles like the water bowsers used by farmers to irrigate their fields.

The road will be anchored to its new foundations to counter constant erosion.

Meanwhile, Nature Trust Malta, which manages the site, said that once the area is reopened to the public, more enforcement will be needed to prevent abuse, specifically vandalism, trampling of sensitive areas, off-roading and the dumping of rubbish and unwanted pets such as terrapin turtles.

“We don’t like restricting the site too much, so we will be working with stakeholders and landowners to strike a balance,” said CEO Vince Attard, adding that a visitor-flow management plan would be put in place to encourage visitors to keep to designated paths.

The persistent issue of crayfish infestation has also not gone away, despite 4,500 of the invasive crustaceans having been removed over the past two years.

“The problem is that they reproduce very prolifically, so while we can eradicate them all from the public part of the valley, all it takes is one crayfish in a privately owned area for the infestation to start all over again,” he said.

A study to determine whether nitrate levels in the crayfish are low enough that they can be caught and safely eaten is yet to be concluded. 

The road has been closed since it collapsed in November 2021.