Lack of funds and inferior quality patching works carried out by the outgoing Labour-led council weeks before the 2015 election are to blame for the poor state of the roads in St Paul’s Bay.
Mayor Graziella Galea gave this reaction when the Times of Malta yesterday sought her reaction to a story published a fortnight ago in the wake of the complaints received on the road infrastructure in this locality. A few days later, things started moving as some of the roads which were in a bad state of repair were resurfaced either by Transport Malta or the council.
Ms Galea, however, pointed out that these works had been in the pipeline long before the issue had been raised on the paper. She noted that soon after the PN-led council took office in 2015, a report was commissioned on the quality of cold asphalt patching works which had been carried out a few months before by the outgoing Labour-led council. In some areas including the seafront, patching had been carried out using ordinary concrete.
From this study carried out by architect William Lewis it transpired that the repairs by Dimbros Limited had not been conducted according to Transport Malta regulations.
Temporary works are no long-term solution
It noted that the areas which were patched up exceeded the maximum permitted footprint and in some instances the cold asphalt mix was not up to standard. Moreover, patched areas in busy roads deteriorated much faster as the asphalt could not withstand high volume of traffic, the report said. Subsequently, the council took the contractor to court and is seeking damages.
“Spending funds to carry out temporary haphazard works is no long-term solution and would be money down the drain,” the St Pauls’ Bay mayor told this newspaper.
She said that the council had started resurfacing from scratch in those areas which were supposedly repaired in 2015 as well as other parts of the locality. In some cases the water pipe network was being replaced to minimise the risk of having to dig up the road for repairs anytime soon.
Ms Galea added that the council was doing its best to speed these works to minimise inconveniences for the residents as much as possible.
“However, the financial outlay to repair all the road network within our locality is well beyond our budget and so we are urging the government to give us additional funds,” she said.
Meanwhile Transport Minister Joe Mizzi recently said in Parliament that there were no plans to tap EU funds to upgrade the arterial road linking Xemxija on the outskirts of St Paul’s Bay, to Mellieħa, at least until 2025.
The issue had been raised by Opposition MP Ċensu Galea who had repeatedly complained on the bad state of repair of this major thoroughfare including the old bridge over Mistra Valley. Moreover, it is not clear if the government is considering to upgrade the road from national funds.