Monday, 28th April 2008 - 14:26CET
Gatt demands independent testing of road works
Roads Minister Austin Gatt has directed the Transport Authority (ADT) to commission independent testing of all roads contracted for construction by the authority and not to rely any more on certification issued by contractors thrmselves. The request includes roads managed by local councils.
He said that it is in the public interest to ensure that road construction, road maintenance, road verges and pavements, service ducts and culverts as well as road markings and direction signs are up to internationally recognised quality standards.
Dr Gatt told the authority that it must not accept any tender for works that does not adhere to such quality standards and it is to black list tenderers who repeatedly do not achieve quality standards.
"I cannot accept the standard excuse that local contractors do not have the required knowledge to deliver work of sufficiently high standards," Dr Gatt said.
"Although I understand that quality tests are required on newly constructed or extensively refurbished roads, I am informed that at present these tests are not carried out by the authority but by the contractors and at testing facilities that the contractor chooses. I consider this as bad practice. It is in the public interest that such tests are carried out by an independent laboratory in order that the authority, the guardian of the public interest in this area, can, independently of the contractor, ascertain that the quality contracted for is being delivered," Dr Gatt said.
Dr Gatt complained about the quality of road patching on some roads and said it was unacceptable for the authority itself, as well as local council, to follow a policy of accepting low quality work simply because it was provided by the tenderer with the cheapest offer.
"Minimum published quality standards should be the basic and only acceptable benchmark for tendering."
He said that road markings were also inferior to international quality standards and the directive, therefore, applied to them as well.
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Comments
Some suggestions.
Kindly delegate a good number of Professional Inspectors (even if you need to import foreigners to train our staff ) to drive around the country roads and identify potential hazards in the form of
1: Trees obstructing sign posts and overgrown trees obstructing vision.
2: Lamp posts in the middle of roads and in dangerous corners.
3: Worn out road signs - illegible , broken , rusty, torn tape.
4: Unsafe carriage ways eg: going down the last turn of 't'Alla w ommu' - the car keeps going straight into the center strip when the road is slightly wet even when driving at 2kph .
5: Road corners which tilt outwards instead of inwards sending one off track.
6: Skips without fluorescent paint protruding outwards into the road.
7: open culverts - broken sidewalks - protruding sidewalk corners .
8: Huge sleeping policemen - high enough to ruin your car - there is a standard height for these -
The list is too long. I shall stop .
How about creating a website 'Smart Traffic' for us who use the internet so we may place our picture of what we also see as a road hazard together with the area and location . this will make things easier and more cost effective for your ministry.
You may even create an incentive of some sort to encourage feedback -
Maybe we can SAVE lives with our little contribution on the web.
Anyone in favour?
Many accidents can be avoided in my opinion.
Accidents NEVER happen - they are always caused and there is always a reason behind every injury or fatality.
Over speeding, drinking, distractions,bad road management, lack of proper road construction followup and regular maintenance .
I am sure Minister Austin Gatt will follow up the instructions he is giving and he will make sure that the various road works will be up to standard
Penalties are fine as a deterrent. In the meantime responsible and competent supervision will guarantee completion of works to the obligatory standard and within the agreed time frame. This will eliminate the tiresome frustration to the road users caused by never ending projects. In order to achieve this objective both parties should be liable to penalties relevant to their obligation.
Gatt's recent initiatives.A climate of change for the better ,within
Road Safety is building in Malta. Can I urge those in authority to
take Road safety ,at the site of road works more seriously,for example
how often are we surprised by Road works just around the bend with no
prior warning signs for motorists?
Like most of the Maltese people I travelled to many countries. North of Europe with metres of rain every year, north Africa with high temperatures all year round, America, Far East. I can say that very rarely I ever came across a bad road.
Here in Malta, starting from the sixties up to this day, tourists and visitors make fun all the time with our street pot holes. And I do not blame them.
To start with some of the "new" roads have already been patched up for one reason or another.
The patching of the roads need to be investigated and a proper way found so that the work last for a long time and not every time it rains the material dissolves in the water.
Every ministry Austin Gatt was responsible for have made a success out of it. I am sure that now we can sincerely hope for another success in the road management.
I use the newly-redone road from Siggiewi to Zebbug a number of times daily. A number of manholes have been re-done a few times already and you still have to slalom between the manholes when using the road as some of them are one to two inches beneath the street level.
This is a shame seeing that this is a brand new road and one should enjoy driving straight on it. The contractor should be made to redo these manholes correctly, once and for all.
first and foremost when will the burmarrad bound lanes be repaired and opened
will it take years or maybe until caqnu wakes up with a good mood
I suspect that there are illegal ones. His ministry must focus on residential areas and not the centre (there I understand it, because of tourists). But in the roads behind the Empire Cinema such pavements were done in front of premises which are not even a bar or a restaurant.
Such an act would be appreciated from residents.