Plans to build flyovers in Msida have been revised to add a new bus interchange and a third footbridge, reorganising a planned public garden around the Worker's Memorial.
Following the submission of new photomontages of the Msida Creek project to the Planning Authority this week, an Infrastructure Malta spokesman told Times of Malta the changes followed consultation with the Msida local council and Transport Malta.
The new footbridge will connect the new public garden and car park around the monument with the Pietà side of the junction, replacing the existing four-lane pelican crossing along the northbound lanes in the same area, while the new bus interchange is intended to facilitate improved public transport links along the busy bus route.
The Msida Creek project, first announced in 2019, would see roads agency Infrastructure Malta build flyovers and wider roads at the Msida junction, removing traffic lights to ease congestion bottlenecks. It has faced concerted opposition from architects, NGOs and environmentalists.
Its planning application, which is still at a preliminary screening stage, was submitted by the agency’s CEO, Frederick Azzopardi, with Audrey Testaferrata de Noto listed as the project architect.
The publication of the new plans prompted concerns that the project's green area had been reduced substantially to make way for new parking bays.
In the Facebook bicycling group Komunita’ Rota, one user presented a visual breakdown showing that the changes would create multiple pockets of disconnected pedestrian space – and potentially cut off access between the Msida and Pietà seafronts.
However, Infrastructure Malta insisted the overall green space would not be reduced and that the existing seafront access would not be interrupted.
"Based on the behavioural patterns in the area, the new cycle lanes, footbridges and footpaths will intersect through the new garden around the Workers’ Memorial, thus ensuring a safe, direct and convenient link across the Msida Creek area," the spokesman said.
The "optimised" plans followed consultation with the Msida and Pietà local councils and a detailed Traffic Impact Study and a Road Safety Audit, the spokesman said, and would also include a comprehensive underground stormwater system, to alleviate the long-standing flooding problem in the area of the existing traffic lights junction.
Vociferous criticism
Despite the project still being at a preliminary stage, Infrastructure Malta has already launched a call for tender for the project last September.
The project has drawn vociferous criticism from architects, NGOs and environmentalists, who argue that building flyovers in what is the heart of a historic town will destroy communities and sound the death knell for the historic waterfront.
Last month, Chamber of Architects president Andre Pizzuto slammed the plans as “outrageous” and noted that Infrastructure Malta was pressing ahead with a call for tender despite having no permit in hand for the project and without undertaking an Environmental Impact Assessment.
Pizzuto had argued that traffic congestion in the area could be solved by rethinking traffic flows and diverting vehicles away from the Msida junction area.
“They see this as a road engineering problem, so their solutions are road engineering ones. But this is an urban planning problem, and the solutions to be found are there."
His calls for a pedestrianised waterfront area tally with the views of conservation architect Joanna Spiteri Staines, who in a Times of Malta article this week argued that the Pieta’ waterfront could be fully pedestrianised, with traffic instead diverted through a tunnel.
Environmental NGOs have also criticised the plans, calling for a more forward-looking infrastructural solution which facilitated sustainable transport.