Trees lining Mdina Road in Attard are being chopped down as part of the Central Link road project, with virtually empty roads allowing workers to speed up the process.

Workers equipped with chainsaws were seen cutting up trunks and branches as others cleared the debris from a section of the road between the Mrieħel bypass and San Anton Gardens junction on Tuesday morning.

The trees are among the roughly 500 which must make way for additional lanes of traffic planned as part of the €55 million project.

Different clusters of trees must be cleared for the project.

Restrictions to limit the spread of coronavirus have proven to be an unexpected benefit for roads agency Infrastructure Malta, which has been able to capitalise on reduced traffic to pick up the pace on road projects.

The Central Link project had sparked considerable public outrage due to the large number of trees which would be sacrificed to allow new traffic lanes to be added to the central thoroughfare between Rabat and Mrieħel.

In July 2019, activists tied themselves to trees along the route in protest at the plans.

Works on the controversial project nevertheless got under way at the start of the year, with an appeals court later rejecting an appeal filed by environmental activists to stop the project.

The court had found that there were no “substantial shortcomings” in the process leading to the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment and that the Environment Planning Review Tribunal had reached a “reasoned opinion” in allowing the project to go ahead.

The court had however criticised the government for starting works before the appeal had been decided.

Activists had said in reaction that they were considering their legal options.