With reference to the report entitled ‘“Savings” on Coast Road owed to cutting corners’, the photo with a caption saying ‘Pavement to nowhere’ is misleading because it is taken on a footpath that is currently blocked so that pedestrians do not access it until other separate works are completed.

The footpath will join with a ramp, bridge and pedestrian area, which are part of a separate works department project linking to the Salt Pans. We are informed that works are ongoing on parts of this project and other parts are in the preparatory stages.

It is not true and irresponsible to state that safety barriers were omitted from the project. The Coast Road is totally protected by crash barriers up to the highest European standards and these are visible on the road. There were no compromises on road safety features. Motor strips, special safety barriers that further protect motorcyclists, were installed in Malta for the first time.

The temporary flooding that occurred weeks ago was due to the failure of the storm water system of T’Alla u Ommu area and not related to the works carried out on the Coast Road. Transport Malta identified a huge collapse in the system that was thoroughly investigated, cleaned and improved wherever possible. This was communicated in the media.

Part of the system which had collapsed has been rebuilt so that the possibility of flooding on the Coast Road, caused by this external factor, is reduced.

The storm water reservoirs, retaining walls and pump rooms mentioned in the article were part of an ancillary landscaping project that had to be omitted from the works contract. It was either that, or no Coast Road.

Editor’s note: All information in the article is reproduced from a document headed: ‘Items to be omitted (in their entirety) from the Bills of Quantities’ submitted by the Minister for Finance in reply to Parliamentary Question 22135.

Among these items are: “timber cladded safety barriers”, drip irrigation ducts, storm water reservoirs, retaining walls, drip irrigation pump rooms, pavements and storm water drains.

In its story, the Times of Malta quoted a Transport Malta spokesman stating that “the storm water catchment capacity was in no way compromised” and that flooding was caused by a malfunction of the storm water system at T’Alla w Ommu.