A road to perdition
Residents trapped in their homes
A dug-up Marsascala street, which has been closed off because of construction work that is three weeks overdue, has trapped residents in their own homes.
One frustrated resident, Oliver Scicluna, yesterday said the much awaited roadworks on Gandoffli Street started some seven weeks ago but the contractor abandoned the excavated road three weeks later.
When contacted, Transport Malta said the contractor has been carrying out construction work sporadically on Gandoffli Street for the past seven weeks.
The authority confirmed he had been expected to complete the job within four weeks. It had instructed the contractor to complete the works within the stipulated time and warned him it would not be extending the permit beyond April 4.
Moreover, even if the work was completed by April 4, the contractor will be liable for any penalties falling under the contract of work as well as under legal notice 29/10 covering roadworks, it said.
The contractor has already had €1,000 deducted from his bank guarantee for carrying out works without a permit. He will also be expected to reimburse TM for the emergency interventions which it had to make through on-call contractors.
But that’s no consolation for the disgruntled residents, who remain trapped. Some of them have had to garage their cars and boats for the past few weeks.
Mr Scicluna even went so far as to ask whether residents will be compensated for their inconvenience.
“Residents of Gandoffli Street have been suffering for far too long without a proper road. After tens of years begging to have a proper road they were made to believe that works had started, but what actually happened was that this road was made far worse than it ever was as now it’s totally inaccessible,” he complained.
Mr Scicluna forwarded his complaint about the situation to the media and the authority, and was backed by his neighbours in the same road.
In its reaction, the authority said it regretted the inconvenience caused to the residents. It added it was primarily focused on bringing an end to this “unfortunate situation within the parameters allowed by the procurement regulations and without compounding the plight of the residents”.