Commuters can now access the new southbound lanes of the Msida Valley Road Bridge that is being rebuilt with a wider deck and new lanes off Regional Road. The project is scheduled to be completed by October.

When the second half of the structure is built, this bridge will be the widest one in Malta, extending to 23.5 metres.

In the coming weeks, Infrastructure Malta will shift the two northbound lanes to the new bridge as well, so that it can rebuild the rest of the old structure and integrate it in the new design of Regional Road.

The €7 million project includes the reconstruction and widening of part of this road from four to six lanes, three in each direction, from the Tal-Qroqq Tunnels in Msida towards Santa Venera.

This stretch of road links with other arterial roads through slip roads and other junctions.

Built in the 1970s, the road bridge is now being rebuilt to optimise the road’s alignment and super-elevation for increased safety, according to TM.

Earlier in the year, the agency constructed and opened the first stretches of two additional Regional Road lanes.

It also built the foundations and abutments of the new bridge and demolished part of the existing one.

The new bridge deck that has just been opened is supported on six 20-metre pre-stressed concrete beams weighing 24 tonnes each.

In the northbound carriageway, from the Santa Venera tunnels towards Msida, one of the additional lanes will provide safer access from the slip roads connecting Msida Valley Road, Old Railway Track, in Birkirkara and Kappillan Mifsud Road, in Santa Venera to Regional Road.

Further north, part of this new lane has already been constructed and opened to road users, reducing travel times when exiting Regional Road through the slip road in the direction of the Birkirkara Bypass (Dun Karm Psaila Road), the University of Malta and Mater Dei Hospital.