Roadworks in and around Manikata will be completed by the end of June, Infrastructure Malta has pledged, ending a three-year saga for residents of the hamlet.
The €9 million project to upgrade the roads and the water network in the area has left residents “imprisoned” in their hamlet with the road from the St Paul’s Bay bypass leading to Għajn Tuffieħa “inaccessible 90% of the time”, residents said.
An owner of a shop in the area, who preferred to be unnamed, claimed to have lost an average of €50,000 a month since January from passing trade. He said he simply could not afford more road closures.
Residents criticised the lack of communication from authorities and described how roads would be closed off without any prior notification or warning.
“We have had to make do with our own internal communication, advising each other on the updated road opening and closures,” one resident said.
A residents’ association was formed in November to try to tackle the road closures linked to the project around Manikata, Għajn Tuffieħa, Mġarr and the Xemxija area.
Families with young children often had to go through either Mġarr or Mellieħa to get to St Paul’s Bay, and the state of the roads damaged cars and tyres.
The imminent completion time announced by IM will not mean all will be over for residents as a final phase at the junction of Triq Għajn Tuffieħa, part of the road heading towards Mġarr, is scheduled to follow in October.
A barrier on the road leading to Mizieb.Ombudsman asked to investigate delays
Residents have criticised an “insensitive” government, Infrastructure Malta, Transport Malta, the Water Services Corporation, ministers and MPs and the “incompetent” Mellieħa local council, which Manikata residents claim has ignored their continuous cries.
The residents want a bypass created outside the hamlet to avoid all traffic going through its narrow roads and their dangerous blind spots.
Mellieħa councillor Gabriel Micallef has, however, written to the ombudsman to investigate the unfinished works in the Miżieb, Imbordin, San Martin and Għajn Tuffieħa.
‘We are not second-class citizens’
The works were started and never completed, and time frames missed, Micallef said, insisting someone had to be held responsible for the delays. “We are not second-class citizens,” he said.
Manikata was “no longer the quiet village I invested to live in”, said a person who has been residing there since 1998.
Apart from the “uncontrollable” granting of building permits, the once peaceful hamlet has been turned into a “highway” linking Gozo and Mellieħa to the rest of Malta, with over 50,000 vehicles driving in and out daily, including polluting heavy vehicles that were prohibited by a legal notice but were not stopped due to a lack of enforcement.
Manikata no longer the quiet village I invested to live in
There is zero traffic management, with buses and heavy vehicles getting stuck in the narrow roads with oncoming traffic, the residents said.
The roadworks have also led to problems for ambulances to reach homes due to the lack of signage and notifications of road closures. The ongoing infrastructure project involved the installation of new services by a number of service providers, prior to IM’s intervention.
This consisted of road build-up and reconstruction of stretches of retaining structures along the route from Għajn Tuffieħa through the area known as Ħal Ferħ to Xemxija, covering a distance of five kilometres, the agency explained.
Phase 2, on Triq Għajn Tuffieħa from Xemxija roundabout to tal-Palma and beyond, includes works managed by a service provider on the new potable main and second-class water for irrigation and farming – part of upgrades to the water network in the northwest region.
IM is responsible for the rebuilding of the new retaining and boundary walls and road reconstruction, which it said were almost done.
Phase 3, which is ongoing, includes work on the construction of a new roundabout, the reconstruction of boundary walls, and civil works for the reinforcement of electrical infrastructure.