New slip roads and lanes joining the main artery of the Marsa-Ħamrun bypass were opened on Wednesday by Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg.
The Marsa-Ħamrun bypass is part of the TEN-T network and this project will further improve the efficiency of this artery as well as connections between Birkirkara, Santa Venera, Qormi, Ħamrun and Marsa, Infrastructure Malta said.
It said the new roads form part of a €2.25 million project that builds on another €5 million investment on this connection.
Borg said this was another example of projects that work like a chain and build on one another.
“Our roads are dynamic, and we can therefore never say that an artery is finished. There is always room for improvement and that is what we have done here. Thanks to this investment, we are improving efficiency, air quality and safety in this main connection.”
From the beginning of the first phase of this project, he said, the government had planned to continue intervening. In fact, one of the new lanes joins another that was built in 2018 to be used during this phase.
“Like in the Central Link Project, these connections drive traffic from the residential centres of localities to main arteries. This is our ultimate goal – to give a good quality of life to all our country’s residents,” Borg said.
The new connections include a slip road from Canon Road to the southbound carriageway of the bypass and lanes in the off-slip from the same carriageway towards Qormi Road in the direction of Ħamrun or Qormi.
To join these two connections, a fourth southbound lane will also be opened along the bypass.
The project also includes the rebuilding of the flyover wing walls and parts of the wall of the Santa Venera tunnels exit ramp.
In the coming weeks, Infrastructure Malta will build the remaining flyover wing walls and will modify and resurface the roundabout underneath.
This main artery is expected to get a completely new look thanks to another project where Infrastructure Malta is transforming the 350-metre wall built as part of the 2018 project into the longest vertical garden in Malta, with thousands of indigenous plants to be watered by an automated system, it said.