A road widening project has been carried out without a development permit, with the government only seeking to regularise the work at a later stage, echoing the same procedure like the Tal-Balal project.
The latest case saw the widening of the roundabout and the complete re-design of a traffic junction in Ħal Farruġ, next to St Vincent de Paul Residence, which was completed last May.
Infrastructure Malta is only now seeking to ‘sanction’ the works, which, in planning terms, refers to the procedure used whenever an applicant wants to regularise an illegal development.
The sanctioning request was made as part of the second phase of the project that comprises the widening of the upper part of this arterial road over a 2.8-kilometre-long stretch all the way to the junction at the end of Triq l-Avjazzjoni Ċivili, in Luqa.
Despite the fact that the Planning Authority is yet to approve the entire project, the government has already declared its intention to start work in the first three months of next year and issued a call for tenders.
The application to sanction the work has raised eyebrows as it was the second such case in a matter of weeks. Infrastructure Malta filed an application in August to regularise the widening of Triq Tal-Balal, between San Ġwann and Naxxar. While the application is still pending, this came at a cost to taxpayers as a €42,000 fine has been imposed.
Part of a separate project to improve efficiency and safety
When asked, an Infrastructure Malta spokesman said no further work would be carried out until the development permit was issued.
He added that sanctioning was only limited to “the shifting of a small section of the boundary wall of the St Vincent de Paule roundabout, which had to be relocated earlier this year as part of a separate project to improve the efficiency and safety of this junction”.
However, no reason was given for the decision to do the work before the PA's authorisation.
As for the rest of the project, Infrastructure Malta said that, to add another lane on each carriageway, 9,080 metres of land outside the road’s footprint would be required. The spokesman noted that this would also serve to accommodate a three-metre segregated cycle track.
This ‘narrow’ strip of land along parts of the road included developed land such as parking areas, disturbed sites, agricultural land and industrial zones, among others, he added.
As in the case of Tal-Balal, Infrastructure Malta would not give the cost of the expropriation, on grounds that negotiations with the owners had not been concluded.
While noting that most of the land in question was government-owned, no precise details were given on the private land being taken over.
Another environmental consequence of the project will be the uprooting of 69 trees, some of which are protected. The spokesman said the agency was in talks with the Environment and Resources Authority to determine the number of new trees that needed to be planted as compensation.
The agency is justifying the project on grounds that it would reduce congestion around the airport.
Studies carried out earlier this month confirmed that the addition of a third lane and roundabout bypass lane in Vjal l-Avjazzjoni Ċivili led to a 73 per cent travel time reduction from the Kirkop tunnels to Luqa during the morning rush hour, the spokesman said.