Republic Street and Fort St Elmo plans

I am very glad to read in The Times that architect Ray Demicoli intends to give importance to a solution to the problem of how Republic Street in Valletta ends at the side of Fort St Elmo. In a recent discussion within the Heritage Advisory Committee on the master plan for Fort St Elmo, I also emphasised this point which, in my opinion, was not given importance in the master plan.

What we see today is a very negative intervention of the 1970s when a new “bridge” was created right in front of a beautiful spur of Fort St Elmo, too close to it, and leaving an area of the ditch looking like a dumping hole (which it actually did become). I was told many years ago that the bridge had to have so many “legs” because the concrete slabs were ordered from a particular concrete plant that only did concrete slabs up to a certain measurement. In any case, the bridge is extremely ugly and should be removed. The spur should be “liberated”.

Having said that, I do not really agree that the end of Republic Street should end up in the ditch. I would rather sacrifice the walls of the end of the triangle of the ditch (opposite the spur) by having the road end up there and allowing some kind of see-through to the ditch, thus removing the need for the bridge altogether.

However, I am aware that, at this stage, Mr Demicoli is still exploring possible solutions to what is not an easy matter to resolve.