Mayors from three local councils say they are being kept in the dark about roadworks in their areas, sometimes only being alerted by signs put up when the project begins.

Swieqi, Attard and St Paul’s Bay mayors said that road agency Infrastructure Malta often failed to inform councils when works were going to start.

This delay means they are unable to let residents know if there are going to be diversions.

Last week, Naxxar mayor AnneMarie Muscat Fenech Adami spoke about the lack of planning and coordination. She said this was resulting in snail-pace roadworks because different projects were being tackled simultaneously.

All three mayors agreed that there was a lack of communication. Attard mayor Stefan Cordina said that, overall, he found Infrastructure Malta to be accessible, even if the council did not always agree with its decisions.

“One area where there is room for improvement is that they should inform us when works are about to start. In the case of the Central Link project [that takes traffic away from the Attard village core], for example, we expected to know beforehand to be able to inform residents,” Cordina said.

St Paul’s Bay mayor Alfred Grima echoed the same sentiment. While Infrastructure Malta consulted with the council on major projects, all too often they did not inform the council when works were about to start.

“Sometimes, it takes months for works to start after all the consultation is done and permits are issued. One area of improvement would be having an idea of the estimated start day,” Grima said.

We only find out when signs are up

Swieqi mayor Noel Muscat agreed and went a step further saying Infrastructure Malta did not consult with the council. 

“We are being ridiculed as a council,” he said.

Road works in Naxxar: the town's mayor is among those who have said local councils are not being kept well-informed. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

“Recently, there have been various instances when I did not know works were going to start so I could not communicate this with residents. We only find out when signs are up,” he added.

Muscat said there were instances when the council was not even consulted about the roadworks themselves, as was the case of works in St Andrews Road and Santu Wistin Road.

Agency says consultation is 'fundamental'

However, Infrastructure Malta has denied the allegation that it failed to consult the councils.

“The agency believes that consulting all stakeholders, including local councils, is a fundamental contributor to the successful implementation of any infrastructural project.

“It gives the agency the opportunity to optimise its plans to meet the changing requirements of different communities, whilst planning mitigation measures to reduce any adverse impacts during works,” a spokesperson said.

According to the regulations, before starting works, Infrastructure Malta must obtain a road works permit from Transport Malta.

The application process for this permit incorporates a mechanism to inform local councils about the works and the road closures or deviations that may be required.

The purpose of this notification is to give councils time to contact the agency or the authority in case of any difficulties with the works involved or if they wished to suggest additional interventions, he said.

Since Infrastructure Malta was set up in 2018 it has carried out reconstruction or other major upgrade works in over 470 roads as part of an ongoing €700 million, seven-year programme to improve the entire road network.

Currently, with the support of local and international contractors, the agency is implementing several upgrades to the arterial road network. These include the Marsa junction project, the new Corradino footbridge and the safety upgrade of Burmarrad Road, between Mosta and Burmarrad, as well as the reconstruction of over 60 streets and rural roads in different localities, the spokesperson said.