A tunnel being dug as part of the interconnector project has turned a quiet Swieqi valley into a hell of thumping generators, clanging diggers and clouds of fine dust, residents have complained.
“The noise is unbearable; it’s like living on board a commercial plane with the engines at full blast. Once the works start the noise is non-stop,” Swieqi resident Emmanuel Azzopardi told Times of Malta, relieved that at 3.30pm, he could finally enjoy some peace and quiet after a day of thumping and banging.
Mr Azzopardi’s home overlooks Wied Mejxu, one of the last green spaces in the densely populated Swieqi area. Once a quiet escape from the busy clattering of noisy Paceville and St Julian’s, the valley has been host to constant digging for more than two years.
It’s like living on board a commercial plane with the engines at full blast
The works, being conducted on behalf of Enemalta, are linked to the interconnector project which supplies electricity from Sicily. The subterranean tunnels are required to have emergency exits every few hundred meters, one of which emerges in the middle of Wied Mejxu.
Mr Azzopardi said the works had already missed a number of deadlines and it was not clear when they would be finished. They were meant to be finalised back in December 2015 and the deadline was pushed back a second time to March of this year.
“Now we’ve been told the chaos will soon be over – whatever ‘soon’ means. But in the meantime we just have to put up with this,” Mr Azzopardi said.
Questions sent to Enemalta late yesterday were not answered by the time of writing.
Swieqi mayor Noel Muscat said the works had been delayed after the contractors encountered particularly dense rock. The contractors, he said, had to change equipment as the tough rock defeated a number of drills.
Resident Mary-Anne Mercieca, who lives on the opposite end of Mejxu valley, said that although she did not hear the generators thanks to double glazing, her maisonette had fallen victim to “a constant layer of fine dust”.
“No matter how much I clean up, within a few days my home is covered in very fine white dust. It gets everywhere,” she said.
With summer fast approaching, Ms Mercieca fears she will not be able to open her front windows without her home looking like an icing-sugar coated cake.