Residents and commercial outlets on Triq il-Wied ta’ Ħal Balzan should be able to breathe a sigh of relief this week as their road, which was meant to have been completed way back in September of 2018, is finally reopened to traffic.

The residents have endured months of dust, mud and dangerous pathways on this 500-metre long street, which links Balzan to the Birkirkara bypass, as they patiently waited for the road contractors to carry out works on what was considered to be one of the worst roads in the country.

The road project had been officially announced by Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg in June 2018, with a promise that it would be concluded by September.

“We’re really fed up. It is true that if you want to upgrade, you have to make sacrifices, but I think we’ve made too many of these now,” one angry resident complained.

“We were promised it would be complete in three months and although it’s a stretch, we were ready to put up with it. But it’s almost a year now and there’s no end in sight,” another resident had told the Times of Malta during the summer.

But a spokesman for Infrastructure Malta has said the end is near: the road is expected to be reopened to traffic by this week. It will still require a final layer of asphalt but that will probably be done after the festive season, the spokesman said.

The September 2018 deadline had first been moved to October but the project was further delayed when the contractors encountered obstacles, including bad weather, the spokesman said. The first phase of the project consisted of an overhaul of underground networks and the rebuilding of the entire road structure of the southern stretch.

Weather permitting, all works will be ready by the end of this year,- Infrastructure Malta

The final asphalt layer on this stretch will be laid along with the rest when all other works are ready.

The second phase included the reconstruction of the northern end of the road, from Triq it-Tabib J. Zammit to Iklin roundabout.

The whole project includes 1.2 kilometres of new pavements, reinforced foundations, more than 3.4 kilometres of new underground water, sewage, internet and other telecommunication networks, and the upgrading of existing storm water catchments and pipelines.

The spokesman said that to place new sewers, trenches deeper than 2.3 metres – in some areas reaching over five metres below ground level – were dug up.

He explained that contractors unearthed cables that were not marked and a decision was taken to dig trenches along small stretches at a time to minimise the inconvenience.

“At the same time, it needs to be made sure that the ongoing trenching works are carried out very cautiously, without putting the workers’ safety at risk or damaging existing infrastructure,” the Infrastructure Malta spokesman added.

“When these works are ready, the agency’s contractors will lay the final asphalt layer to form a uniform surface from one end of the road to another.

“Weather permitting, all works will be ready by the end of this year,” he said.