The Msida Creek project will now include a piazza in front of the parish church as well as a canal in a radical redesign of one of Malta’s busiest junctions.

The project has received a major makeover by roads agency Infrastructure Malta after initial plans for the area stoked controversy. The redesign of the Msida Creek project has seen the number of flyovers reduced from the original two to one.

Plans envision that, for the first time in its history, the church of St Joseph in Msida will enjoy a 2,200-square-metre open space in front of its parvis, paving the way for more social activity, particu­larly around festa time. The piazza will connect to a newly designed playground that further leads towards a revamped boċċi club.

The church of St Joseph in Msida will enjoy a 2,200-square-metre open space in front of its parvis.

A key feature of the redesign is a 300-metre creek that is being introduced with the aim of reducing the historic flooding problem that is known to plague the Msida roundabout area.

The walkways around the creek, dubbed active mobility paths, will include three pedestrian bridges allowing people to cross over the creek. The paths will be open to pedestrians as well as cyclists and scooters.

The walkways around the creek, dubbed active mobility paths, will include three pedestrian bridges allowing people to cross over the creek.

The creek will also function to allow small boats, less than four metres in height, to turn around from a small aquatic roundabout. It will be accompanied by a maintenance plan to make sure the water level remains at par during the dry season.

The new designs eliminate the traffic lights currently in place and will see traffic coming from Birkirkara diverted directly through to Valletta on a road that will remain at street level and cross over the proposed creek. One line of traffic from Birkirkara will allow motorists to turn upwards towards the skate park roundabout.

The redesign of the Msida Creek project has seen the number of flyovers reduced from the original two to one.

The proposed flyover structure will connect Triq Mikiel Anton Vassalli directly to Triq il-Marina, taking traffic coming from Regional Road and the skate park on a clear path to Valletta.

Traffic coming from Ta’ Xbiex will be connected directly to Valletta since the option for motorists to turn towards Birkirkara from a junction near the workers’ monument will be eliminated.

Traffic coming from Ta’ Xbiex will be connected directly to Valletta since the option for motorists to turn towards Birkirkara from a junction near the workers’ monument will be eliminated.

The proposed car park will double the number of existing parking spaces and all the open space being used for parking will be covered by solar panels.

Of the total 47,000 square metres that the site of the proposed project spans, some 4,500 square metres will be taken up by landscaping and 4,000 square metres in footpaths. An estimated 60 per cent of the total site will be dedicated to open spaces.

Speaking to Times of Malta, Infrastructure Malta CEO Ivan Falzon said the new plans are estimated to cost some €18 million, up from the original €14 million estimate. However, he said that all of the additional costs would be going towards creating the proposed open spaces.

While at its core, the project’s aim is to improve road connectivity, Falzon said it was also important to improve the area in tandem.

“Our competence is to improve the network and deliver better connectivity, and studies indicate it will improve connectivity by 40% during peak traffic and by 30% during off-peak hours,” he said.

“It will also have the benefit of improving the air quality of the area by 10 to 15% overall. However, something that Minister (Aaron) Farrugia and I discussed when I came to the agency in July is the philosophy that when we deliver a road project we should also be upgrading the area and improving it for the people who live in or make use of it.

“In this case, Msida has never had a central piazza, which I believe is the centre of traditional village life. And the canal, as well as being eye-catching, serves one of our principal aims of addressing flooding in the area. The design is almost replicating the way the area used to be in the past.”

The design is almost replicating the way the area used to be in the past- Infrastructure Malta CEO Ivan Falzon

In total, Falzon said the project is estimated to take 26 months to complete in full and will be implemented in stages to minimise traffic disruption. The idea is for works to start first on the Ta’ Xbiex side and the plan is that the area will never be entirely closed off.

The agency will be filing plans for the project on Monday and has set a target date of June to complete the planning process, with works planned to start once ongoing projects in Luqa and Mrieħel are completed.

Residents and NGOs had voiced opposition and flagged various concerns with the original plans for the project, saying that the proposed flyover infrastructure would sacrifice the little remaining open space in Msida in favour of more traffic.

The plans even earned a rebuke from the head of the Chamber of Architects, which called the project “outrageous” and said that it flew in the face of urban design philosophy.

Falzon said that criticism was a natural part of revealing a large project to the public and said the agency had taken great effort to address people’s concerns in the redesign.

“I think we should always welcome this process with open arms, there are no secrets, and after all, this is a publicly funded project,” he said. “The team at Infrastructure Malta has been hearing what people are saying and meeting with local leaders to hear them out. It’s been a year of hard work for them.

“But I hold that while the details of the project are always negotiable, the principle remains the same. The biggest challenges we have as a nation are space and time. We are running out of space, so the variable we can really improve on is travel times.

“If you’re asking me whether we really need this project, I think the area has been crying out for an upgrade for some time and someone needs to deliver it,” he said.