‘Very exciting plans’ in pipeline for restored ditch round Mdina

More sections of the Mdina ditch under the fort’s bastions would be opened to the public, Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino announced yesterday while visiting restoration works there.

Mr Pullicino said the government had “very exciting plans” for the ditch but remained mum on specifics, which should be revealed over the next three weeks.

During a walkabout, Mr Pullicino, together with Mdina mayor Peter Dei Conti Sant Manduca and architect Adrian Mifsud, explained how the first phase of the three-pronged project would fortify St Paul’s Bastions and the bastions beneath Vilhena Palace.

“The works are not only aesthetic restorations but structural interventions are ongoing to reduce and reverse the damage sustained over the past 50 years and more,” Mr Pullicino said. He described how, while Mdina was built on solid rock, the knights could only extend the bastion walls over soft clay, which have caused tilting and cracks in the bastions over time.

The plans, therefore, aimed to strengthen the bastions through the installation of structures which form a mesh-like formation deep under the bastion wall to make it stronger, Mr Pullicino explained. Monitoring systems are also in place to gauge the amount of water at the clay interface and to measure movement of the walls.

The first phase of the project should take about 18 months, according to Mr Pullicino, and works on this 200-metre long part of the bastion wall will cost about €2.6 million, 85 per cent of which is EU funded.

Future plans include the restoration of the bastion wall underneath the cathedral in the second phase of the project and the final stage will consist of work on the fort underneath Magazini Street.