Lack of planning and coordination with the authorities, including local council, is resulting in snail-pace roadworks because different projects are being tackled simultaneously, according to the mayor of Naxxar.
AnneMarie Muscat Fenech Adami said work in St Paul’s Street, a main thoroughfare, has been ongoing for several months and there seemed to be no end in sight.
A spokesman for Infrastructure Malta said the project, which started last year and was split into four phases, is expected to be completed by year’s end.
Residents have complained about the slow progress in the roadworks, saying they were fed up with living in “a war-zone”.
Windy days forced them to keep windows closed for most of the day, they cannot even hang out their laundry outside and getting home is becoming very difficult, they insisted.
“I have a young daughter and it’s impossible to get home without getting covered in dust. We’re developing allergies and we cannot go on like this forever,” resident John Farrugia, also speaking on behalf of his neighbours, told Times of Malta.
“They should not start 10 projects in 10 different places at the same time. They should plan properly, start a project and finish it before moving on to the next one. We’re suffering because of bad planning.”
This was echoed by the mayor who said the council only discovered by chance that a contractor had been ordered to give the street “a layer of tarmac”.
“I do not want cosmetic changes. If we’re going to do something, we must do it properly. The part of St Paul’s Street where they want to apply just a layer of tarmac has a severe sewage problem. I have residents there who get sewage seeping into their basements,” she said.
“In June, we wrote to Infrastructure Malta and the roads minister and stopped them in their tracks. They listened to us, changed the plans and, now, the work is being done properly, to the benefit of those residents in the locality.
“There’s no coordination and no planning. This street was not on the original list of roads which needed upgrading. The lack of planning is also having an effect on the duration of such projects because there are a limited number of contractors,” she added.
An Infrastructure Malta spokesman explained that the project on the 1.3-kilometre stretch is in its final phase as part of the ongoing €700 million, seven-year programme for better quality roads.
He said that, to minimise inconvenience to road users and to the residents in the area, works were split into four phases, each focusing on a different section of the street, which stretches from T’Alla u Ommu roundabout to the roundabout connecting it with Valley Road, Iklin.
Three phases have been completed and works are now focused on the final phase, comprising the stretch of road in the former Trade Fair grounds area.
This €2.3 million upgrade includes the rebuilding of existing footpaths and the construction of new ones, new pedestrian crossings and the laying of over three kilometres of water pipelines, internet cable ducts and sewers. To install some of the gravity sewers, the project contractors had to dig trenches over one storey deep.
The agency used drain inspection cameras to determine what condition the system is in and identified several blockages and other damage to the culvert’s structure, necessitating its replacement.