Mosta residents are up in arms after one of the locality's main roads, which has been closed on-and-off for two years, had to be dug up again on Friday.

Works were recently completed in Triq il-Kbira in Mosta as part of a wider project that sought to upgrade the town centre. 

The road was first subject to works in November 2020, but it had to be dug up in August 2022 after heavy rain broke up the asphalt.

Residents and business owners in the street have also taken the responsible authorities to court over the shoddy work, which at points caused flooding in their properties, some claimed. 

The lack of planning that had seen the closure of the road for two years had also resulted in a loss of business and goodwill from the community, they said. 

On Friday the council said that the works would be completed on Saturday and that the road would reopen to traffic on Sunday.

But despite reassurances for the council, commenters online were still upset that the road had to be closed again. 

"The comedy continued, this council ought to resign en bloc. One farce after the other and the adjacent roads .. since August still not ready!" one man said. 

"You've already had to pull up these grates three times, well done it really seems like you know what you're doing," said a woman. 

PN Mosta councillor Joseph Gatt said it was "incredible" that the road needed to be dug up again despite being closed for practically two years and causing countless inconveniences to residents through noise, dust and reduced accessibility in the area.

He asked who was going to be held responsible for the shoddy works and additional costs and called for the works to be certified by a competent authority. 

"It is unacceptable that after years of inconvenience, the road already needs repertory works," Gatt said. 

"This isn't the way we should be working and it is not the standards that residents expect of us."

In reply to Gatt's Facebook post, Mosta mayor Chris Grech said that it was not the road work that was defective but the metal grate for the storm drains and that once this was discovered, the remaining grates were not used in the surrounding streets.

He said the expenses related to this would be borne by the company that provided the faulty grate. 

"We must indeed suffer a couple of days with the road closed but maintaining our standards calls for the grates to be replaced," Grech said.