The authorities have restored wheelchair access at a pedestrian crossing in Birkirkara following enquiries from the media after it was left unfinished for months.

For around two months, wheelchair users had struggled to access the pavement at a crossing on a section of Triq Fleur-De-Lys after water maintenance works left a ditch running along the side of the road.

The strip of depressed road surface had left wheelchair users unable to access the pavement, forcing them to travel on the road instead while trying to find somewhere else to mount the pavement further up the street.

Sixty-seven-year-old Noel Cacciottolo said he had been thrown out of his wheelchair and suffered minor injuries when he was hit by a truck while being forced to use the road nearby.

He said that, for months, he had been unable to mount the pavement due to his chair’s wheels being incapable of bridging the width of the ditch and had repeatedly called on the authorities to urgently fix the issue.

However, the road remained unfixed, with Cacciottolo reportedly being told by the local council “we have nothing to do with it”.

When Times of Malta visited the site last Friday, the road was still unfinished.

A shallow ditch, several inches wide and filled with cigarette butts and rubbish, lined a section of Triq Fleur-De-Lys and the nearby corner of Triq ta’ l-Indjana.

When contacted on Friday, however, a spokesperson for the Water Services Corporation (WSC) pledged that repairs would begin that day, adding the company had only become aware of the issue recently.

“We’ve instructed the contractor to rectify the situation as soon as possible and work in this regard will be done today,” the spokesperson said at the time. 

Stressing that restoring pedestrian access in that section of road was a “top priority” for the company, the spokesperson said the works were being carried out to replace potable water pipes and were due to be completed by mid-July.

When Times of Malta returned to the site on Monday, the ditch had been filled in, restoring wheelchair access to the crossing pavement.

The road surface remains unfinished, however.

At the time of publication, Birkirkara local council had not responded to questions sent Friday.