The long-promised pedestrian bridge over the Mrieħel bypass will finally be built after a planning commission gave its go-ahead yesterday.

The footbridge will be made up of two steel structures on either side of the road rising from a concrete square base of around 10m sq. The bridge will be roughly 12 metres high.

Qormi residents complained of being cut off from the town centre

The structure will be made of anti-reflective steel and screened by metal perforated architectural screening. Although it “will inevitably be intrusive”, the whole design is modern and lightweight, according to the case officer’s report.

Requested by Transport Malta, the permit will replace a previous one that had been approved in 2009 but never used.

The new design will take up less land than the old design, which had long stretches of zigzag ramps leading up to the actual footbridge.

The Labour Party had pledged to build a pedestrian crossing over this major road during the election campaign. It had long been a bone of contention for Qormi residents, who complained of being cut off from the town centre when the bypass was built in the early 1990s.

Their plight gained momentum when two girls were killed while crossing the busy artery to reach their house a few years ago. Plans by the previous administration to build a pedestrian bridge never materialised.

The new footbridge will shift about 150 metres from the original location. The ramps will be replaced by a stairwell and a lift on either side of the road. It will also be covered with solar panels. The footbridge had long been promised – former Transport Minister Jesmond Mugliett had once vowed it would be up by 2007.

The issue was discussed in Parliament in 2010 when then Labour MP Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca presented a motion asking the government to solve the problem. It was defeated.