A Balzan road dubbed one of the worst in Malta by infrastructure minister Ian Borg will get a long-awaited rebuilding in the next few months.

Works on Triq il-Wied ta’ Ħal Balzan are planned to begin next week and to be completed by the end of summer, and will involve the complete reconstruction of the road and some 1.2 kilometres of pavement, the minister said.

Two mature trees which have stood in the road for years will be sacrificed as part of a realignment. The Balzan local council said the trees’ roots were damaging road infrastructure and that efforts would be made to have them replanted elsewhere in the locality.

Addressing a press conference on site, Dr Borg said the road, which falls under the responsibility of the local council, currently could lay claim to being one of the worst in the country, but that the necessary works would have cost five times the council’s annual budget.

Problems such as these, he said, underscored the importance of Infrastructure Malta, the planned agency which will be responsible for implementing the government’s €700 million plan to redo all roads within seven years.

Dr Borg added that the upgrading of Triq il-Wied ta’ Ħal Balzan would support the forthcoming Central Link Project, a €55 million plan to upgrade the arterial thoroughfare between Saqqajja Hill in Rabat and the Mrieħel bypass.

The minister has previously said the project would take two years to complete and improve a route used by around 30,000 cars daily. It is aimed to reduce travel time by up to 50 per cent and cut traffic emissions cut by 13 per cent.