Speed cameras were installed to curb excessive driving.

Calls for an expression of interest for the long-promised Mrieħel Bypass footbridge will be issued shortly but the government is not saying when this will be built as it is “too early”.

“At this stage, it is better not to commit to specific time frames. We are talking about a major project,” an Infrastructure Ministry spokeswoman told Times of Malta.

The Labour Party had pledged to build a pedestrian crossing over this major road during the election campaign and a planning commission gave the go-ahead in April.

The footbridge will consist of two steel structures on either side of the road rising from a concrete square base covering an area of 10 square metres. The bridge will be roughly 12 metres high.

The structure will be made of anti-reflective steel and covered by metal perforated arch­itectural screening.

“During the past months, different plans were evaluated after the government was presented with options between an underpass and a footbridge and was studying which one was the most feasible,” the spokeswoman said.

“Over the past weeks, Mepa issued the permit for a footbridge. A lot of work was also done with different design and positioning possibilities, taking into consideration traffic safety.

“Now, the process connected with the expressions of interest will start.”

The Qormi local council and residents had long been calling for a safe passage across the busy artery after the Tal-Blat residential zone was cut off from the locality’s centre by the bypass, which was built in the early 1990s.

The road gained notoriety in 2005 after Emma Marie Housley, 17, and 13-year-old Graziella Fenech died after being run over by a car driven by Ivan Cutajar, 23, while attempting to cross the road.

On Thursday, Mr Cutajar was ordered to pay the Housley family €240,000 in damages after he was first given a two-year suspended jail term back in 2009. He was also ordered to pay the Fenech family €211,000 in damages.

Following the accident, former Transport Minister Jesmond Mugliett had vowed a footbridge would be in place by 2007.

Speed cameras were installed to curb excessive driving and Transport Malta concluded in 2010 that a footbridge would not be economically feasible after studies showed that only an average of 42 people crossed the road in a week.

The decision had angered Ms Housley’s mother, Marlene.

“It’s as if they are telling me that my daughter’s life was worthless,” she told this newspaper in 2010.

“How many more deaths will it take to finally make it feasible to build a footbridge?”