The owners of a boutique hotel in Mosta are demanding financial compensation from the authorities after claiming that months-long non-stop roadworks significantly disrupted their business.

The Julina Boutique Hotel before the roadworks began.

Carmen and Chris Spiteri Cremona, who run the small, luxury Julina Boutique Hotel in Main Street, about 100 metres away from the Mosta Rotunda, said that in the past weeks, tourists arrived at their hotel to check in, but when they saw the state of the road in front of the hotel and heard the incessant noise of the construction machinery, they walked out and left.

“Some did not even check in. They walked in and out again. Others checked in, spent one night and left the next morning, complaining that they cannot stay like this,” Carmen Spiteri Cremona told Times of Malta. “And every time I must give them a full refund and help them find alternative accommodation.”

Infrastructure Malta is currently rebuilding the stretch of road connecting Ta’ Qali to the Mosta square. The final phase of the project, close to the square, is nearing completion.

In a judicial protest filed against the Mosta local council, Infrastructure Malta, Transport Malta, and the company responsible for the roadworks, the couple are demanding financial compensation and a definitive date of completion for the roadworks, among other things.

The excavation works appear to have stopped now, and workers are laying tiles that will form part of a pavement. But dust is prevalent in the area, the hotel’s online rating has nosedived and the couple is still reeling from bad reviews.

One online review complaining about the noisy roadworks was uploaded a few weeks ago and sparked at least a dozen other would-be guests to cancel their bookings for this summer.

“We’ve had lecturers from foreign universities book a room in our hotel, thinking they would be able to deliver online lectures from a peaceful Maltese village, only to be constantly disturbed by a jackhammer,” Chris said. “We don’t blame tourists for not wanting to have breakfast next to an excavator.”

We don’t blame tourists for not wanting to have breakfast next to an excavator- Chris Spiteri Cremona

The couple believe that given the large number of tourists that the Mosta church attracts, the area should be declared a tourism zone, and that would force excavation works to stop during the summer months.

But they say their pleas to the government, MTA and the local council have so far fallen on deaf ears, and despite repeatedly asking for a definitive date for the completion of roadworks, they have, so far, remained without an answer.

Contacted for comments, Infrastructure Malta said the roadworks were originally scheduled to be completed in May, but the council requested the replacement of aerial line crossings with underground cables and hardstone paving for the new pavements. Following discussions with the local council, Infrastructure Malta extended the project timelines to incorporate these improvements.

“The new hardstone paving and the ducts for the new underground cables need to be completed before the final rebuilding works, including asphalt laying. Otherwise, the new asphalt surface can get damaged by the pavement and cable laying works,” a spokesperson for Infrastructure Malta said. Consequently, roadworks will be completed in November, but the road will temporarily open without the final layers of asphalt by the end of July, and works will cease until the Santa Marija feast and resume afterwards.

The Spiteri Cremonas also claim that efforts to cooperate with the authorities to assist them in relocating their guests were also in vain.

“This is no way to treat tourists. I wish I could offer a much better service to our guests, but I’m wasting my time trying to keep them happy amid the noise and debris. It is exhausting,” Carmen complained.

Lawyers Jason Azzopardi and Kris Busietta signed the judicial protest.

Questions were sent to the Mosta council.

Infrastructure Malta said the roadworks were unusually challenging.

“The road had extensive damages to its surface and pavements, while its underground networks, including major sewers and potable water pipelines, had to be replaced. Infrastructure Malta laid over four kilometres of new underground networks in this street, including sewers embedded in trenches two storeys beneath the surface,” it said.

“It also introduced an extensive storm water system with new catchments and a large underground pipeline. Since this street is narrow, these underground services had to be delicately installed next to, and in some cases on top of each other, without disrupting the older systems that remained in use until the new ones were in place.”