The deteriorating pedestrian bridge at the Ċirkewwa ferry terminal was built in line with tender technical requirements, contractor Charles Polidano insists. 

Concrete structures supporting the bridge show serious signs of deterioration.

Last week, Times of Malta reported that concrete columns supporting the gangway had already deteriorated and needed to be replaced, just six years after it was first inaugurated.  

A technical report on the state of the structure, conducted by UK engineering firm CTP Consulting and seen by Times of Malta, revealed that the concrete structures supporting the bridge were already showing serious signs of deterioration, with visible cracking, patches coming loose as well as hollow areas in the structure. 

The bridge, which provides pedestrian access from the terminal building to the Gozo ferry, was part of a €10 million EU-funded terminal project.  

Built by Polidano Group and completed in 2012, it was inaugurated just before the 2013 election.

Project design 'did not include waterproofing'

Contacted about the matter, Polidano Group legal adviser Jean Paul Sammut said a meeting had been held between Infrastructure Malta, Transport Malta and Polidano earlier this month.

The parties have since agreed to commence a number of technical meetings starting this week, to discuss what other tests are required and the way forward. 

The tender technical requirements were not as per standards of a marine zone and high winds, let alone for a durability of 100 years

Sammut says that Polidano followed the “deficient contract specifications”, but was also willing to ensure that the structure had the necessary durability safeguards it should have enjoyed in the first place.  

The designs for the project, Sammut says, did not include waterproofing, and it appeared as though much of the damage was being caused by rising damp. 

“The tender technical requirements [on this project] were not as per standards of a marine zone and high winds, let alone for a durability of 100 years. Another problem was the lack of maintenance. Apparently no maintenance was being carried out during the works,” Sammut said. 

He added that Polidano had raised a number of issues with the authorities on what should have been done, but instructions at the time were for the contractor to stick to the tender specifications.

Meanwhile, a source at Transport Malta said the technical report on the site had been commissioned after staff at the terminal had started complaining of “slabs of concrete falling off the underside of the bridge”.  

The report was commissioned by Transport Malta to carry out an inspection of the Ċirkewwa ferry terminal back in May 2018. A final report was handed over in April. 

It found that although the bridge is only a few years old, the concrete used on the bridge’s columns was poorer than that used in the rest of the structure.

Concrete testing, the report says, had also identified instances of carbonation, which happens when air seeps into the concrete through pores and weakens it. The report recommends that in the short term, the hollow-sounding concrete should be removed and a new layer added to stop the carbonation. 

In the longer term, the report recommends that a detailed structural analysis of the terminal bridge be carried out to assess the extent of the damage and its impact on the structure’s weight-carrying capacity.  

The most comprehensive long-term measure, however, is to replace the concrete in the bridge’s columns, possibly using steel.