Roads minister seeks to avoid mistakes of the past

The Maltese people are right to complain about the state of the roads because a lot of them are substandard.

Although this statement may sound obvious, the surprising thing perhaps is that it comes from Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett.

In an interview with The Times, Mr Mugliett admitted that he worries "about the inconvenience the roads cause to people, the image they give of our country and I worry about how long it will take us to become a modern country even in this respect".

He looks out of his office window at the calm blue sea, which on Wednesday morning had fewer ripples than most roads on the islands.

But he is confident that the situation is improving, although he concedes that it will likely take another three years to be able to say that local roads are not bad.

"There is still a lot of work left to be done."

He admits that mistakes have been made in the past, including with the recently completed Civil Aviation Avenue. For weeks motorists were diverted through a parallel road full of potholes.

"I think we could have done more at Gudja Road, Luqa, where traffic was diverted." The Malta Transport Authority took a cost-containing decision which in retrospect he believes was wrong. "We could have surfaced that road with around Lm30,000."

Moreover, Gudja Road will still need to be surfaced since it is likely to be used as a diversion road when works are taken in hand on Council of Europe Road in the near future. "This time I will not repeat the same mistake," he pledges.

He sounds adamant that things will go as smoothly as possible when it comes to works on Manwel Dimech Bridge in St Julians, which are expected to start in a few weeks' time. A lot of planning is being done before the actual works start, to avoid problems later on.

"We would have liked to start before but we felt that it would be better to ensure that the contractor had resolved all the issues to avoid hiccups once the work has started."

One often wonders why work is not carried out around the clock to finish quicker. The minister explains that road works are subject to a permit from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. Initially this allowed for work on the bridge to be carried out on a 12-hour basis, but following negotiations with the authority this was extended to 18 hours, seven days a week.

"This should help us finish well within schedule, maybe even before."

He admits that contractors have been given generous completion periods. Referring again to Civil Aviation Avenue, which had a six-month completion period, he says the works could have been completed within four months.

Works on Manwel Dimech Bridge are expected to be completed by September 2007 and the contractor will be liable for penalties both if the work is delayed and if the traffic management is not up to scratch. Such penalties, Mr Mugliett explains, have been applied before, including for Civil Aviation Avenue, where the contractor was fined Lm4,000 because of traffic management shortcomings.

"One of the ADT's main complaints with Civil Aviation Avenue was that the contractor was switching the lanes that were to be closed without informing the authority's architects, which at times resulted in chaos."

Although Manwel Dimech Bridge will not be completely closed while works are underway - two-way traffic will pass through one carriageway - the ADT is recommending a number of diversions to reduce congestion.

Will it be ensured that the diversion routes are not closed because of other road works? The issue has already been seen to, and is one of the reasons why work on Rue D'Argens is being done at the moment, the minister replies.

Asked whether having the bridge closed during the summer months could have been avoided because of the potential effect on tourism, with one viaduct done now and the second next winter, he says it would not have been fair on the contractor and would also have made the project more expensive. Specialised scaffolding had been brought over and it could be left idle for months.

He adds that projects financed by the EU are subject to a payment programme, which means that delays are not always possible. "In some cases, if we fall back we can lose funds. With Manwel Dimech we are already a little late on the payment programme so we cannot delay anymore."

Other projects are lined up and at some point summer will have to be included, he says.

"I know that the Tourism Ministry is concerned and we have spoken to the minister about it. Next year's projects include some that will have an impact on tourism - the road to the cruise liner terminal, Marsascala Bypass, Council of Europe Road and the road to Cirkewwa - but they were also chosen because of their importance for the industry. There is little we can do to avoid the tourism season, but we are trying to be more sensitive on diversion routes."

Apart from the bigger projects in the pipeline, around 450 residential roads will be done up in the coming months. The majority of them have never been surfaced and the photos in Mr Mugliett's big file show dirt roads that are calling desperately for some tarmac. Around 80 tenders have already been issued, with works having started on around one-third of them.

Manwel Dimech Bridge factbox

Manwel Dimech Bridge - which was built in 1971 with a 35-year lifespan - was deemed to need extensive repairs when a French engineering society reported dangerous oscillations during a series of inspections two years ago.

This spurred the government to slap a 45-kilometre speed limit and place a limit on the weight of vehicles using it in a bid to reduce the oscillations.

Works will include the demolition of the two viaducts, rehabilitation of the supporting columns and rebuilding the viaducts.

An additional lane will be added to each side of the bridge to improve access to Spinola.

Works will be done on one viaduct at a time, the first being the carriageway from St Julians to Valletta. The other viaduct will be used as a two-way road. But motorists are being advised of the diversion routes identified by the ADT to reduce traffic delays.

Three-quarters of the €6 million project is being funded by European Regional Development Funds.