Unsafe Regional Road railings to be replaced with steel barrier

The concrete railing along the Regional Road bridge which is heavily corroded is to be replaced by a steel restraint system along the lines of recommendations made in a report published yesterday.

Replacing the bridge railings, which would cost hundreds of thousands of euro, was crucial because they were no longer safe, architect and report author Alex Torpiano told The Times.

Transport Malta commissioned Prof. Torpiano to draw up a report on the state of the bridge railings after a truck last month was left perched precariously over the underlying road when it broke through the railings.

On the day of the accident, Philip Curmi, 41, was on his way to Ibraġ when the Toyota Dyna he was driving skidded, bumped into the bridge railing on his left as the truck gained momentum and then crashed out through the right hand side. This left him and his colleague Simon Azzopardi suspended until they were rescued by other drivers who stopped to help.

Nobody was injured but the day after the accident Transport Minister Austin Gatt wrote to Transport Malta chairman Mark Portelli expressing concern and asking for an expert opinion.

In his report, Prof. Torpiano said the bridge walls along this main thoroughfare had suffered “corrosion damage” and should be replaced by a “properly designed metal vehicle restraint system”.

These systems were not crash barriers but structures designed to restrain or stop a vehicle from falling over in an accident, explained Prof. Torpiano, who is also dean of the Built Environment Faculty at the University of Malta. The report recommended opening up the expansion joints – the gaps between the bridge and the road – and reinstalling them properly.

“These are installed because a bridge expands and contracts. They need to be replaced as the ones on Regional Road are broken and there are missing pieces,” he said.

The new expansion joints have to be finished properly using asphalt or reinforced concrete, Prof. Torpiano added.

His report was given to TM on Thursday, which yesterday said it would be taking up his recommendations and drawing up an estimate of costs involved.

“The works will be carried out shortly,” it said.

Although he explained he was not commissioned to estimate the costs, Prof. Torpiano said the bill would probably run into hundreds of thousands of euro especially because the four sides of the railings had to be replaced.

The sides of the bridge have been lined with high visibility barriers which might not be able to survive another truck crashing into it at a high speed, making it “risky,” he said.