No deadline for St Paul's Bay bypass repairs

The government will not give a deadline for the repair work being done on the St Paul's Bay bypass, well over a month after announcing it had reached yet another agreement over the matter.

Work on a massive wall meant to buttress the collapsed section of the bypass was underway yesterday. However, the southbound part of the road remains closed despite a pledge to have the road closed only for a mere five days.

Responding to questions sent to it a week ago, the Roads Ministry would only say that "works are currently going on", without indicating a completion date. When asked for it specifically, no response was forthcoming at the time of writing.

"One appreciates that the weather conditions did not help at all," a ministry spokesman said. Announcing the agreement with the contractor Polidano on December 7, which happened to be a Friday, the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) had said that work would start the following Monday, adding that the road would be closed to traffic for the first five-day phase. Then, the contractor would be able to continue without disturbing the traffic.

The road, however, remains closed to this day and, while the support wall being built now runs over half way the length of the collapsed section, a visit to the site yesterday did not indicate that the rhythm of the work was particularly swift. Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett had similarly announced an agreement with Polidano when opening the road last July, following a Lm3 million (€7million) rebuilding job which still left a 300-metre long damaged section unrepaired. Alas, nothing came out of that agreement.

The road had originally collapsed in 2000 as a result of illegal excavations in nearby land belonging to Polidano. Different ADT administrations failed to apportion responsibility to the developers over the years.

Only recently, following intense media attention, did the government start talking of holding the developers to account for the damage estimated at Lm500,000.

The minister had said in July that the developers had accepted to repair the road at their own expense "unconditionally" and that repair works would be completed by September but none of that came through.

The Office of the Prime Minister eventually intervened threatening the developers with legal action if they did not accept responsibility by October 12 but even that ultimatum was exceeded without any developments being reported.

In December, the ADT had again reiterated the threat of legal action "should work not be completed as agreed".

mmicallef@timesofmalta.com