Infrastructure Minister Chris Bonett will meet with the Chamber of Architects to discuss plans for Msida junction after the chamber at the weekend unveiled its proposal for an alternative to the flyovers planned for the area.

On Sunday, Times of Malta revealed a Kamra tal-Periti (KTP) proposal to transform the Msida junction into a tree-filled park, as an alternative to the two flyovers planned as part of Infrastructure Malta’s imminent Msida Creek Project.

The idea drew support from Msida’s mayor-elect and PN councillors, and was widely praised on social media.

In a Facebook post on Monday, Bonett said he had noticed the reactions to the proposal and he said he would be meeting with the Chamber of Architects in the coming days to discuss this project in some detail.

Bonett’s words come just days after an Infrastructure Ministry spokesperson said that while the ministry “appreciated” the KTP’s interest in the project, the tendering process had been completed and works would begin next month.

Responding to the reactions, the minister wrote on Facebook that he couldn’t, and did not even want to ignore the Chamber's proposal.  

Bonett said that while the designs for the proposal appeared to be “eye-catching,” they raised questions about traffic management. There was also an issue as to what extent he had the freedom to vary or change the project at this stage, and what legal and financial consequences there may be.

“I promised I would listen... and I will,” he said, stressing he wanted the project to be “the best possible.”

The minister reiterated a ministry spokesperson’s words over the weekend, however, that planning for the project started five years ago, and that a tender had been selected and a contract of works on the project signed.

The chamber wants to ditch the planned flyovers and instead transform Msida into a 20,000-square metre park with more than 2,000 trees.

It thinks it can help solve the traffic problems around Msida by instead adding just one slip road to the Regional Road and reorganising the existing road infrastructure to route traffic around the area.

The chamber says its proposal could be completed in less time than the current plans, at no additional cost and with minimal impact on residents during construction, while providing a much-needed green lung in one of the worst-polluted areas of the country.

Infrastructure Malta CEO Ivan Falzon questioned the timing of the move over the weekend, dismissing the proposal as a “desperate attempt to make the headlines.” But the idea drew praise from the public and Opposition upon its release.

On Monday, shadow Transport Minister Mark Anthony Sammut said he welcomed the proposal, stressing it was “not too late to save Msida.”

“This is the new way we want to see the planning of our roads and infrastructure done; in a sustainable way and one that puts the needs of the community at the centre,” he said.

“With more open spaces, trees and clean air. And by taking traffic out of our town centres, not increasing it.”

If Bonett does decide to change course on the project, this would not be the first time it has seen revisions in its five-year history.

The first iteration of the project was announced in 2019 by then Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg.

But a year later the plans were sent back to the drawing board by then Infrastructure Minister Aaron Farrugia after a group of NGOs urged him to ensure social and environmental impact assessments were carried out.

A radical redesign of the project the following year, adding a piazza in front of the parish church, parking spaces, solar panels, a canal, pedestrian walkways and bridges, with a tender for the revised project issued in August last year and approved three months later.