Works to rebuild a residential road crossing from Balzan into Birkirkara have been completed, the Infrastructure Ministry said on Saturday.

Old Railway Street cuts across 11 streets and is one of the longest stretches of residential roads being rebuilt by national agency Infrastructure Malta.

Rebuilding it saw agency workers install approximately 2km of underground pipes and cables for water, phone and internet services, building new road foundations, new pavements and rebuilding a service road on its Balzan end.

Works on the Birkirkara end of the road had irritated parents of children attending the nearby St Aloysius College because of their timing. Works had gotten under way just as children returned to school following their summer holidays, with one parent describing the area at the time as being “like a war zone”.  

Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg, who paid the site a visit, said that many roads currently being built had to be rebuilt from scratch and that this could only happen following consultation with service entities and local councils.

Photo: DOI/Kian Bugeja

“The time when infrastructural projects meant installing tarmac over a terrible road is over,” the minister said.

The Labour government has pledged to rebuild all of Malta’s roads over a seven-year period, in a €700m infrastructural drive that it made a cornerstone of its 2017 reelection campaign.

Infrastructure Malta was set up following that electoral victory to manage the road building projects, which began with a tranche of 120 selected roads.