The first two flyovers at the Marsa junction will open for traffic next month, Transport Malta officials said on Monday.
The busy traffic junction will have seven flyovers by the time the €70 million project is completed at the end of next year.
Details on the project, the biggest ever roads project in Malta, were given in a briefing by Infrastructure Malta CEO Fredrick Azzopardi, at the agency’s offices in Luqa.
The project aims to address the traffic congestion in Malta’s busiest junction, used by an average of 110,000 vehicles per day.
Mr Azzopardi announced that a third of the project has been completed, including the upgrade of Triq Aldo Moro.
By the end of next month two flyovers linking Triq Aldo Moro to Triq Garibaldi will be open for traffic. Although these links are meant for northbound traffic from Luqa to Marsa, they will be initially used in the opposite direction to ease some of the flow in the rest of the area while works are underway.
The lower part of Triq Garibaldi is also set to be re-opened for traffic heading towards Marsa.
Other deviations, affecting northbound traffic at the traffic lights will come into force as from Tuesday
The Infrastructure Malta CEO said that the 130-metre metal superstructure of the first two flyovers made up of circular 40-foot beams, which were manufactured in Turkey, are almost complete.
Works have started to backfill the ramp at this flyover, which will also serve as access another flyover linking Triq Aldo Moro to Addolorata Hill for southbound traffic heading to Santa Luċija. The latter structure, however will be completed next year.
Mr Azzopardi said that the next milestone in the project would be reached in January when two other flyovers linking Triq Garibaldi to Triq Aldo Moro, this time for northbound traffic will be open for traffic.
However, no completion dates were given for the remaining flyovers with the Infrastructure Malta CEO saying only that the project would be ready by the end of next year.
The project entails 337 pile foundations of which 187 have been drilled, 42 pillars of which 20 have been laid, and 264 beams of which 86 are ready.
While the steel structures are being imported from Turkey, all the concrete works are being carried out onsite at the former Shipbuilding yard to avoid transportation logistics.
The project which will also include a pedestrian underpass linking Marsa to Paola and various cycle paths.
Asked what measures were being taken to ensure that the concrete was up to standard, he said that samples from each structure were being subjected to crash tests. In some cases, the concrete was not found to be up to scratch and the structures had to be recast from scratch.