Updated 4.34pm

A flyover at the Marsa junction will remain closed to traffic until Saturday evening after a major spill of cooking oil on Friday forced emergency road works. 

The spill occurred on the flyover connecting Triq Garibaldi in Luqa to Aldo Moro Road in Marsa at around 11am, causing significant traffic in the area. 

Large amounts of oil spilled down onto a road lying beneath the flyover as a result.

A river of cooking oil flowed beneath the flyover. Photo: Jonathan Borg

Transport Malta CEO Jonathan Borg said that a commercial truck spilled some 200 litres of cooking oil as it drove on the flyover.

He said the truck driver stopped to call the authorities and helped with the clean-up operation. 

Roads will need to be resurfaced

Contractors were deployed to the site to begin a clean-up operation led by the Civil Protection Department.

But Infrastructure Malta CEO Ivan Falzon told journalists on Friday afternoon that asphalt was damaged by the spill and will need to be stripped and relaid.

Around 300m of affected road will need to be resurfaced, Falzon said. 

He said specialised asphalt is currently being prepared for emergency resurfacing works. The flyover will most likely reopen to traffic on Saturday afternoon or evening.   

“We will do our utmost to recover all costs from the person responsible for this incident,” Falzon said. 

Sand laid on the flyover to absorb the oil.

Falzon and Borg appealed to motorists to drive with caution in the area as workers will be in the area and oil remnants might have spread to other areas.  

Once emergency works are complete, a detailed impact assessment will give a clearer picture of the damage caused. However, Falzon believes that damages are in the “thousands of euros”.

The flyover connects traffic heading from Luqa to Marsa and is a key part of Malta's Ten-T priority road network. It was opened in late 2019 as part of the €70 million Marsa Junction project. 

The highlighted area in yellow shows the stretch of the spill. Photo: Infrastructure Malta

The spill has caused a major headache. Photo: Infrastructure Malta

An earlier version of this story said that the driver had not yet been identified since Transport Malta did not have the necessary information at the time of the press conference.