Five sculptures by Maltese artists will soon be displayed along the roads financed by the Fifth Italian Protocol with one of them, a sculpture by Gabriel Caruana, already installed.
A spokesman for the Roads Ministry said the works will be put up at junctions. The idea, he said, is "to expose Maltese art".
There are nine main traffic junctions along the new roads, which stretch from Luqa to Targa Gap. Works already exist on some of them but the government wants to have more art on the remaining roundabouts.
All the works will be in place by mid-January. The spokesman said the artists charged very little for their work because they believed very strongly in Maltese art.
Mr Caruana described his sculpture as a modern piece made of concrete and the first of its kind in Malta.
This piece can be seen at the junction between Zebbug and Attard and the artist said it is meant to salute the people travelling towards Zebbug.
A former teacher, Mr Caruana has been creating sculptures since 1953, one of which has been put up in Rome.
Another sculpture, Fighting Spirit, by keen sportsman Mario Galea, represents a fencer performing a sudden movement which is intended to overwhelm the opponent. He explained that the sculpture emphasises his philosophy in life.
"Life is a continuous struggle and one must continually fight to uphold one's dignity and the search for truth," he said.
A work of more than nine metres in height will be put up at the Tal-Farrug roundabout in Luqa. Charles Sammut said his sculpture represents the many routes that are taken in life through a central plan leading to eternity.
"In my sculpture I envisaged the long pipes as roadways leading us forward, connected together by circles and controlled by the sphere at the top, and then moving further along the path into infinity," he said.
The 9.5 metre high iron sculpture weighs 350 kilograms.
Artist Paul Vella Critien's Colonna Mediterranean will be installed in Luqa. Mr Vella Critien said the monumental sculpture is an abstract form based on fantasy and the beauty of the Mediterranean colours.
"It is an abstract interpretation from the elements of nature, the contrast of the warmth of light and wind, and above all it represents the characteristics of a small island in the Mediterranean," he said.
The artist said the sculpture was hand-modelled spontaneously, adding that in the past 20 years he has developed this particular technique from his experience in ceramic modelling.
"The beauty of this sculpture is the revolving effect it creates when under natural light," he said.
Another sculpture by Angelo Agius will be installed at Ta' Srina roundabout, the ministry spokesman said.