Valletta trenching works

I refer to recent correspondence carried under the heading Wrongly Accused (May 30), and the complaints raised by residents of West Street and St Christopher Street, Valletta. Enemalta would first and foremost like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by the trenching works.

These two streets are planned for resurfacing and the Valletta local council quite rightly requested the utility services providers, namely Enemalta and Water Services Corporation (WSC), to consider installing their future underground infrastructure needs in these streets prior to the resurfacing. Enemalta accepted to carry out the necessary trenching works in common with WSC to install both electric cables and a new water main in the same trench. This trench was backfilled last Thursday, following the laying of WSC water mains on Tuesday.

Unfortunately, whenever trenching works are carried out in historic cities such as Valletta, underground artefacts and the remains of previous construction works are invariably discovered. These have to be examined, removed for safekeeping or if left in place, carefully protected before the works can proceed. In these two streets, a tunnel with numerous cross branches was found, necessitating special works to protect these tunnels, the new cables and the structural integrity of the streets themselves. These works were carried out under the full supervision of the Valletta local council and their road surfacing contractor, and in compliance with all the conditions of the ADT and Mepa permits, particularly those relating to the protection of our cultural heritage.

Once again, Enemalta would like to apologise to the residents for any inconvenience caused, but unfortunately any trenching works are likely to cause some local disturbance, which, although Enemalta tries its utmost to minimise, may be exacerbated by circumstances which are not always under its direct control.