Part of Coast Road to be realigned

Part of the Coast Road will be realigned and reworked to include a roundabout, creating a new entrance to the Magħtab area after the planning authority approved the project last week.

The new road and entrance are included in the Magħtab rehabilitation project, approved by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

This permit forms part of a two-phase project and covers the construction of the roundabout and widening part of the coastal road. The second phase, which still needs a planning authority permit, will be widening the road to four lanes.

A stretch of around 650 metres of road will be revamped and the junction will serve as an alternative entrance to the landfills. It was identified as part of the Magħtab rehabilitation to alleviate problems residents will face with the associated traffic around Malta’s largest landfill.

The new junction will not only serve as a new access point for the rehabilitation of the landfill but will also be used as an entrance to the Żwejra engineered landfills and waste hazardous facilities.

The second phase of the road widening will take place with funds allocated for the Ten-T network and will cover the area from near the Splash and Fun Complex to Salini in Burmarrad.

The Coast Road project was first announced in 2009 as part of the European Ten-T project, which is an EU-wide network of roads being upgraded, partly funded by the EU.

In Malta, this involves the reconstruction of 14 kilometres of roads and the widening and reconstruction of a further 12.4 kilometres of roads from single to double lanes.