Infrastructure Malta will be publishing a new tender for a Grand Harbour merchant shipping quay “towards the end of summer” after cancelling its previous agreement due to significant delays by the contractor.
The agency terminated the contract for the construction of a deep-water quay at Ras Ħanżir earlier this year.
The €65 million development, first announced in 2020, was originally scheduled to be completed by 2023. The recently revoked tender, awarded to Excelsis Energi Üretim Construction Consortium, was granted in December 2022.
“Around 10 per cent of the project has been completed, which is why the pace of works was unacceptable,” Transport Minister Chris Bonett said on Thursday.
Following delays, Infrastructure Malta decided to cancel its current agreement with the company engaged to build the quay and publish a new tender.
“Our timeline now is to publish a tender towards the end of summer, and hopefully, there are no issues in the tender process. Then the project can continue from where it stopped,” Bonett said.
The transport minister said the quay’s construction has its European Union funding secured until 2029. The project is partially funded by the EU Cohesion Fund.
“But as a maritime industry, it’s important to complete the project quickly because we need that quay for merchant shipping entering and leaving the country.
“Let’s not forget that infrastructural works at sea are far more complicated than infrastructural works on land.”
Infrastructure Malta video announcing the project in 2020
Bonett said that cancelling the tender was not an easy decision but that he was left with little choice.
“We could see that the way works were progressing was not satisfactory. In two years, the project reached a point where neither I nor Infrastructure Malta was happy with it.
“We gave a lot of opportunities, we held meetings, and we made many arrangements so the contractor could be in a position to work, but we had to take this difficult decision. We felt the time had come to take it,” he said.
The Ras Ħanżir project consists of the construction of a 360m quay through land reclamation between Laboratory Wharf and Fuel Wharf.
The work includes strengthening the seabed clay to support the new structure, constructing a quay wall, land reclamation, and surface paving.