A road that crosses Paola’s main square is to be dug up and resurfaced after sustaining “considerable” damage, Infrastructure Malta said.

The area stretching from Triq Ħal Luqa to Piazza Antoine De Paule in Paola will be resurfaced in works starting on Thursday evening.

The works will be carried out after 7pm where possible and will last a week.

Infrastructure Malta advised motorists to follow temporary road signage and use alternative routes where possible.

A spokesperson for the state agency said works would only involve resurfacing the road, not the town square itself. 

News of the roadworks prompted a strong reaction from the Nationalist Party, which noted that poor administration had turned Paola Square into a money pit of taxpayer funds.

The square was redesigned and rebuilt through a €3 million project and reopened to the public five years ago.

That project, however, immediately drew criticism, as large mature ficus trees were uprooted and replaced with saplings. The project’s architect had defended that decision, saying the ficus trees were damaging underground utilities.

In a statement on Tuesday, the PN said that works on the square had been shoddy from the start. Paving had come loose, parts of the street had sunk and fountains in the square barely ever functioned, the Opposition party said.

“It’s good that work to fix the disaster is finally happened, but the people should know who is responsible for all this and who is going to making up for it,” PN MP Mark Anthony Sammut said.