An alternative plan to re-route part of Regional Road through the valley at Kappara has been challenged by the planning authority’s environment experts, who say it would have a major ecological impact.
Option B would contribute to considerable land take-up at the expense of agricultural land, mature trees and habitats of ecological value
The Environment Protection Directorate said Transport Malta should opt for its earlier plan, referred to as Option A.
The new plan submitted to the planning authority, Option B, “cannot be considered favourably from an environmental point of view”, the directorate said.
Option A incorporates a second roundabout to the so-called Kappara roundabout, with an overpass and slip roads to allow traffic to interchange between Sliema Road and Mikiel Anton Vassalli Road.
The alternative eliminates the traffic-congested Kappara roundabout and replaces it with a more free-flowing route that would include a new roundabout, signalised junction, bridge and slip roads.
The directorate admitted both options would have “significant major impacts on Wied Għollieqa’s ecological area”.
Option A, it said, would impact a smaller area but affect a higher percentage of the Level 1 Area of Ecological Importance.
However, Option B would have a more significant impact on the valley’s integrity, ecology and landscape and further encroach on to “an important green open gap that has survived urbanisation”.
The second option would “have a more extensive and overall more significant impact on the valley’s ecology as a whole”.
It would contribute to considerable land take-up at the expense of agricultural land, mature trees and habitats of ecological value.
Option B, the directorate said, has no clear advantages in noise emissions, air quality, impacts on residential areas or other “environmentally-relevant considerations”.
The aims of the project, estimated to take around two years to complete, are to improve safety, increase road capacity, reduce delays and queues, and minimise emissions.
Residents are split over the two options. The Kappara Residents’ Association is in favour of Option B, while another group, backed by environment groups Flimkien Għall-Ambjent Aħjar (FAA) and Nature Trust, came out against it after it was presented recently.
When asked about the environment unit’s recommendations, Reuben Overend, a member of the association, said he did not want to comment at this stage but was going to “let the planning process” run its course.
Astrid Vella, of FAA, welcomed the directorate’s conclusion, saying the preferred option would destroy land and trees and its long, uphill deviations would increase pollution.
“FAA is working with the residents to develop other, less damaging, options.”
Ms Vella asked why “such disproportionately large and polluting projects” were favoured by the transport authority when solutions existed to reduce traffic jams and pollution “without destroying too much of the valley or intruding on the residents”.