A group of residents living in an Mrieħel apartment block are “living in fear” from ongoing construction right beneath their homes, after discovering what they described as extensive, unsanctioned works in a large garage complex on which their homes rest.
Diane Portelli and Rita Spiteri told Times of Malta that the garages beneath their home on Triq il-Għadam had been bought by Greens Supermarket with the intention of turning them into stores.
Residents said they only found out about works planned for the area when workmen showed up and machines were used to dig up the area.
“One minute we were living in peace and the next we heard a thunderous noise and the building started shaking,” Portelli said.
“We knew the garages beneath us had been sold and bought by the supermarket to turn into stores, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but we wanted to know what was happening, what works were being carried out and what they’re doing under our building because we’re afraid our homes might be damaged.”
Residents realised excavation work was going on when they saw and heard machinery like the pneumatic hammer (musmar), digging under their homes.
They said they never saw a planning application stuck anywhere, which would have given residents a certain period to raise any objections.
As the pounding continued, one day they saw the garage door had been left open, and residents were finally able to see what had been going on below them. They discovered that the ground had been dug up around two load-bearing pillars which support the apartment block and that two large holes had been dug into the ground.
Spiteri showed multiple fissures and cracks in her floors and walls, which she said appeared after the digging began.
The garage in which the load-bearing pillars are located.“I don’t sleep in my bedroom anymore, I sleep out here on my sofa, because I’m afraid, I’m terrified,” Spiteri said, as she explained that the sleeping quarters in her home lie directly above the pillars.
“Of course, I’m frightened, because at any minute I could end up like Miriam Pace! (the woman killed in a construction accident last year). Yes, Rita ends up in the grave with her husband.
“When I saw the holes they had dug up, I was terrified. It’s like they’ve marked out two graves for us, one for me and one for my neighbour.”
Spiteri questions why contractors felt they had a right to touch the pillars integral to her property without notifying residents or making public what works they intended to take place.
“They say they’re fixing the pillars which hold up the building, and I’ve found them digging around them,” Spiteri said.
The contractors working on the building obtained a dangerous-structures permit to carry out repair works to the pillars, however, the Building Construction Agency put a stop to works saying they did not conform to the requirements of the law and that the necessary documentation had not been submitted.
In an objection made to the BCA on behalf of the residents, architect Tancred Mifsud said the site was located on an unstable and weak bedrock foundation and that an excavation depth of 50 centimetres had already been exceeded.
“I kindly request the BCA to order all works to cease until all documentation is in place and also agree on a way forward as there are four families living above the proposed works, and proposed works are considered of high risk,” he wrote in the objection.
The residents want assurances that works being carried out are not putting their lives at risk.
“We are in grave danger, and this is not just something I’m saying, this is what my architect and other experts have told me,” Portelli said. “We just want to know that if works are going to continue that they are done right and that we are safe.”
Requests for comment from the applicant’s legal representative were not answered at time of writing.