Kappara residents have gone back to the drawing board and come up with a fresh junction proposal which has no visual impact and does not trample on the valley like the two previous options.
The new “minimal impact” plan eliminates perpendicular traffic to achieve a fast-moving interchange at surface level, without the need to excavate tunnels or underpasses or build any bridges.
The man behind this plan is architect and Kappara resident Andre Pizzuto. He and a group of other residents, including Tommy Engerer, have submitted their “simple but effective” plan to Transport Malta, which is now evaluating it.
The authorities are trying to come up with a system to solve the decades’ long traffic junction headache.
The first proposal incorporated a smaller version of the present roundabout, with an overpass and slip roads to allow traffic to interchange between Sliema Road and Mikiel Anton Vassalli Road.
The second option eliminated the congested Kappara roundabout and replaced it with a more free-flowing route that would include a new roundabout on the Gżira side of Sliema Road, a signalised junction on the San Ġwann side and a bridge passing over the valley.
Both options were considered to have a big impact on Wied Għollieqa, with the second option having more of a direct impact with considerable land take-up at the expense of agricultural land, mature trees and habitats of ecological value.
The third option Mr Pizzuto drew up moves away from digging or creating bridges and was therefore a considerably cheaper alternative.
The plan is a surface-level, multi-lane system with a hairpin on the site of the present roundabout and another hairpin in the open space close to Zammit Clapp Hospital.
It includes four slip roads to go to and from San Ġwann and another pair to and from Gżira. Motorists driving down Sliema Road cannot cut across to Gżira or to Marsa but first have to drive up to the hairpin and drive back down in the southbound carriageway.
Likewise, motorists driving up Sliema Road from Gżira cannot cut across to San Ġwann or turn to go to the Coast Road but have to drive along the slip road towards the Tal-Qroqq skate park roundabout to drive back onto Regional Road in the northbound carriageway.
“Rather than pushing for Option A which is better than Option B, especially for Kappara residents, we tried finding a solution which eliminates impacts on both lobby groups and reduces the problem more effectively,” Mr Pizzuto told The Sunday Times.
The new option would slow down traffic – because it has to manoeuvre a hairpin – but never stops, which is where the problems are created.
“It is substantially cheaper than both other options, and the money secured from EU funds could be used to upgrade the bridge between Tal-Qroqq tunnels and the Santa Venera tunnel,” he said.
During discussions with Transport Malta an idea was floated to have the Zammit Clapp hairpin underground. Although a possibility, he believes it would work at surface level. Both hairpin junctions are wide enough to take heavy vehicle and even the controversial bendy buses. He said the plan covers the same land area of the present roundabout and will not involve any massive expropriation of land.
It is also simpler to deliver and will see minimal disruption.
Mr Engerer and Mr Pizzuto said the San Ġwann and Gżira councils have backed the proposal as did the Kappara Administrative Committee and Nature Trust.