An end to shoddy trenching works in sight

Enemalta and the Water Services Corporation have been instructed not to carry out road trenching works without the approval of a central unit at the ADT to ensure consistency and efficiency.

In a Ministerial Policy Directive sent to the corporations' chairmen and chief executive officers, Transport Minister Austin Gatt said a new national policy was being prepared to regulate all types of road interventions.

As a further step, he wrote, he wanted to ensure consistency and attention to standards and quality when trenching works were undertaken.

"Unfortunately, this is not the case all the time, especially where resurfacing works are undertaken by corporations, and certain contractors are consistently delivering low quality work and are also rarely supervised to ensure that they deliver good quality work."

In an attempt to tackle this situation two directives were issued. The first directive says that, with immediate effect, road trenching works can only be carried out on the approval of the Network Infrastructure Department within the Malta Transport Authority (ADT).

According to the second directive, as from January 1, all trenching works and subsequent road reinstatement required by the two corporations have to be contracted out by the Network Infrastructure Division on behalf and at the cost of the corporation concerned.