The main works on the Central Link project have been completed, a spokesperson for Infrastructure Malta said.

Transport Minister Ian Borg pledged in summer that the project would be completed by October.

The Infrastructure Malta spokesperson said that bar some “final touches”, which are still pending, all new lanes have been opened as planned.

The €55 million Central Link project involved the rebuilding of roads linking the Mrieħel bypass to Rabat.

Its inception was mired in controversy, with environmental activists decrying the large number of mature trees that were to be uprooted to make way for wider lanes of traffic.

Infrastructure Malta subsequently modified plans but hundreds of mature trees were nevertheless removed.

The roads agency has committed to planting nearly 800 new trees to make up for that loss, the minimum required by law.

The government has said that the project will cut emissions by 13.5 per cent while also reducing travel times.

The project also introduced many facilities for alternative modes of travel

Infrastructure Malta also says the project will halve travel times in this area thanks to the reconstruction of 13 junctions, the removal of four traffic lights systems and the addition of over seven kilometres of new lanes along a 4.3 kilometre road corridor.

The spokesman said the project also introduced many facilities for alternative modes of travel, including 10 kilometres of new or rebuilt safer pedestrian footpaths and segregated crossings, bus lay-bys and the longest segregated track for cyclists and pedestrians in the Maltese islands, connecting Mrieħel, Birkirkara, Balzan, Attard and Ta’ Qali.