Updated: Traffic chaos in Mellieha

Mellieha residents and businesses were going through major inconveniences caused by traffic due to lack of planning and bad management, PL spokesman for Infrastructure, Charles Buhagiar, said.

Addressing a news conference this morning, Mr Buhagiar said that because of the works being carried out at Mellieha, traffic had to go through Ghadira according to the traffic management plan. But this solution did not work and, as a result, all traffic was going through the narrow Triq Ġorġ Borg Olivier, creating a constant congestion.

Mr Buhagiar said a possible solution to the problem could be for some of the traffic to Gozo to leave from elsewhere, such as from Sa Maison for cargo trips.

In a reply, the Infrastructure Ministry said the Mellieha Ta' Pennellu By-Pass project started in November last year and several difficulties had had to be faced because of the bad weather in winter.

Deep excavations also had to be carried out to level the road and for services. A new water collection system was also included. The project cost 10 million.