Siggiewi road to be rebuilt

The main road leading into Siggiewi will be completely reconstructed, finally spelling an end to the daily roller-coaster ride motorists have had to face for the past years.

Sources close to the Roads Ministry told The Times the 1.56km stretch of Triq is-Siggiewi has now been included as one of the roads being upgraded and funded by the Fifth Italo-Maltese Financial Protocol.

This will come as welcome news to many who had vociferously complained when this stretch was left out of the initial road projects.

The 2.5km stretch leading from the Tal-Qlejja roundabout, l/o Mosta, to Zebbiegh, on the outskirts of Mgarr, has also been added to the list of roads which will now be reconstructed and funded by the Italian protocol.

The sources explained that one of the reasons why the two projects were added so late in the day was that the government had set aside Lm2 million, of the Lm12.5 million allocated by the Italian government, just in case the works overran the original estimates. However, the estimates of all the other road projects were spot-on, so the Lm2 million are now being allocated.

The contracts for the two roads are expected to be awarded to the Italian contractors who had previously tendered for the original works earlier this year.

Another project which will be awarded to these contractors is the stretch of Mdina Road between St Dorothy's School and De Rohan Gate, in Zebbug, after the Italian contractor responsible for this work took on more than he could chew.

This contractor, F.lli Basillotta Srl, is presently working on Mdina road leading from St Dorothy's School, in Zebbug to Rabat, but has been experiencing major difficulties and had fallen back on the work.

This delay was raised a few days ago in a parliamentary question by Labour MP Charles Buhagiar. Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett confirmed it and said discussions were underway to establish whether the contractor was in a position to complete the works in an acceptable timeframe.

Following negotiations it was agreed that F.lli Basillotta Srl would be awarded more work if he caught up and finished his stretch of Mdina Road on time.

The sources insisted that the extension of the Italo-Maltese protocol to 2007 did not mean that the road works would linger on for another three years. The timelines were unchanged and the deadline remained October next year.