The love-hate relationship that islanders have with flyovers turns 66 years this month, with the first such overpass being inaugurated in 1957 to alleviate traffic around the Portes des Bombes, Floriana.

The Floriana flyover was inaugurated on December 30 of that year, the same day that then prime minister Dom Mintoff called an urgent parliamentary meeting to propose the Break with Britain Resolution.

In a rare show of unity, parliament unanimously approved Mintoff’s motion that led to Malta’s independence and eventual freedom from its obligations to the colonisers.

These two episodes are among over 1,200 events from the 20th century that former police officer and researcher Eddie Attard collected into the 40th book (Avvenimenti tas-Seklu Għoxrin f’Malta) he has published since his retirement from the Police Force in 1986.

Now aged 76, Attard scoured hundreds of articles and newspapers detailing major events as he did not want the information to be “lost in time”.

Eddie Attard scoured hundreds of articles and newspapers detailing major events for his latest publication. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Traffic delays at Portes des Bombes intolerable

Attard told Times of Malta that, according to articles by Michael Cassar and Joseph Bonnici, which he preserves in his collection at home, the Floriana flyover cost some £70,000.

Following the removal of the railway bridge, traffic at the Portes des Bombes Princess Melita Hill Junction was directed by a police officer on a traffic island.

But, as the number of cars increased, the delays became intolerable and Mintoff commissioned architect André Zammit to come up with a solution.

In 1957, when the number of vehicles in Malta stood at 20,000, some 18,000 passed through the area every day.

'As unpopular as it is extravagant'

But news of the flyover did not go down well with all, as revealed by a quick search through the Times of Malta’s digital archive of past newspapers.

In November of 1957, at a Progressive Constitutional Party meeting in Siġġiewi, JG Vassallo decried the project, one that was “as unpopular as it was extravagant”.

It was characteristic of socialist “planning” that, although the government published plans, it did little to make the public aware of their cost, Vassallo lamented, adding that the estimates for the “Marsa-Tarxien bypass which passed near Mr Mintoff’s villa” had not been published.

The government, he charged, could have tackled much greater problems had it eased congestion in unnavigable places like Żebbuġ, Rabat and Siġġiewi, rather than building a tunnel at Portes des Bombes and opening a bypass across fields outside Tarxien.

'Disturbed by loud explosions'

In December of that year, Pietà resident ‘Albert’ wrote to the newspaper’s editor noting how Guardamangia Hill and neighbouring residents had, for months, been “disturbed by loud explosions” after midnight during the tunnelling.

“It is not very pleasant to be rudely awakened from your slumber in the middle of the night,” he complained, adding that the well-being of the public was held in higher regard in “civilised countries”.

Just before the inauguration of the tunnel, fellow Times of Malta reader ‘Tesmom’ complained of “a long line of Sliema buses parked on one side of the tunnel”.

While acknowledging this was a temporary measure, he said it was a dangerous one, especially when considering the tunnel had been constructed to ensure the steady flow of traffic.

A model of the Blata l-Bajda flyover project as designed by André Zammit, Public Works Department. Photo: Maurice Mifsud Bonnici Collection, National Archives of Malta

Another flyover spelt trouble for shop owners

Less than 10 years after the Floriana flyover was opened, Zammit was tasked with designing another one, not far away.

This time, it was meant to alleviate traffic at Blata l-Bajda. It started being used on February 5, 1967.

According to documents preserved at the National Archives in Rabat, Zammit – who back then worked within the Public Works Department – had prepared a report with plans for the Blata l-Bajda flyover. However, he felt Malta should seek the expert advice of Prof. Aimone Jelmoni of the Politecnico in Milan.

In an “urgent” letter dated December 14, 1962, Minister of Works and Housing Jos Spiteri informed the administrative and financial secretaries that Zammit was willing to “interrupt his holiday” at the end of the month and visit Jelmoni in Milan.

In a follow-up letter by the director of Public Works, S.J. Mangion, dated February 4, 1963, the minister was informed that Zammit was indeed on his honeymoon in Rome.

Another document at the National Archives, dated December 29, 1966 and signed by A.J. Lanzon on behalf of the police commissioner, illustrates the disgruntlement felt by owners of Blata l-Bajda shops at the end of St Joseph High Street.

“As a result of the new layout of the Blata l-Bajda intersection, they have experienced a drop in their trade as prospective buyers are seeking other sources of supply of the goods traded by them in view of their inability to park their cars in front of their business premises,” the report reads.

The shop owners also alleged that trucks calling at their business premises for loading and unloading were finding it “impossible” to do so without obstructing the flow of traffic from Ħamrun to Floriana.

Lanzon noted that since, on completion of the project, vehicles would not be allowed to stop in front of the premises, the footpath should be narrowed from 12 to six feet in a bid to “eliminate the hardship” the shopkeepers were suffering.

An October 1966 photo of the Blata l-Bajda flyover during construction. Photo: Guido Stilon Collection, National Archives of Malta

Other events of note

▪ Five elderly residents at St Vincent de Paul residence (then Ingieret) were jailed for three months after protesting – on September 16 of 1900 – that some of them were being held at the home against their will.

▪ Bishop Pietro Pace declared in a pastoral letter issued on July 8 of 1902 that exposing or selling certain packets of cigarettes in public was a mortal sin.

▪ On May 4 of 1910, the government council approved the hunting of hares on Comino. Every hunter had to pay half a pound every time they did so, with a bag limit of 20 hares.

▪ When, on March 31 of 1958, the Luqa airport was inaugurated, none of the government representatives attended the ceremony, as the British government insisted it retained control of civil aviation.