Broken and crumbling paving stone in parts of Valletta’s Melita Street will be replaced with more resistant lava stone slabs, about a year after being paved in an embellishment project, according to a ministry spokesman.

Forming part of a project that cost thousands of euros, several of the stone slabs between Republic Street and Old Bakery Street have cracked and in certain parts sunk into the road. Other parts have been stained with oil and dirt.

The road is heavily used by traffic, since cars mainly enter Valletta centre from St Mark’s Street.

When contacted, an Infrastructure Ministry spokeswoman said Transport Malta was planning to replace the hard stone with lava tiles which perform much better in a similar environment.

The authority had noted the “failures” and confirmed it had received complaints on the matter, the spokeswoman said.

“Earlier reviews have indicated that the failure has nothing to do with poor workmanship but the wrong choice of material for a heavily trafficked road,” she added.

Valletta mayor Alexiei Dingli said the council received a large number of complaints about the road and alerted new Transport Malta executive chairman James Piscopo about the matter.

He welcomed the suggestion to replace the slabs with lava paving since it was the same material used in St John’s Street between Old Bakery and Strait Streets.