Visitors to Gozo drawn by its reputation for old-world charm and tranquillity are returning exasperated due to the diversions caused by road works across the island.
Prompted by complaints from people who had gone to Gozo for carnival last weekend, The Sunday Times visited the island on Friday to find out if the diversions are as frustrating as returning carnival revellers made out.
Getting to the ferry in Ċirkewwa took half-an-hour longer than usual as the driver got lost following the diversion signs erected due to the reconstruction of the Mellieħa bypass.
Upon arriving in Gozo, it was not long before the first of the omnipresent yellow diversion signs was glimpsed, in place because of the reconstruction of Mġarr Road between Xewkija and Victoria.
Signs apologising for the inconvenience caused by the diversions, however, were few and far between.
Works on this €11.9 million project, partly financed by the European Ten-T Cohesion Fund, began last March and are expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.
Attempting to reach Victoria, the car was diverted onto Triq San Anard, where it was hit with a tidal wave of water caused by a car coming the other way hitting a huge pothole.
Transport Malta lists the resurfacing of diversion routes as one of its achievements in the Mġarr Road project to date, but The Sunday Times found diversion routes are heavily pockmarked across the island.
Victoria’s commercial centre looks like a war zone – old women can be glimpsed hobbling through the dust and stepping over the debris caused by extensive digging in the mainthoroughfares.
It seems even the people who placed the road signs were confused at times – at the bottom of Republic Street there are two signs with arrows pointing different ways, below a small wooden sign with the word ‘ferry’ written on it with a pen.
Adding to the confusion, on several important roads in Victoria there are ‘no entry’ signs barring vehicles except those used by residents or people rendering a service.
There is another one of these signs at the boundary of San Lawrenz on Triq Franġisk Portelli, which is a popular route to the tourist hotspot of Dwerja.
Twenty metres before the San Lawrenz boundary there is a warning of a ‘diversion 100 metres’ ahead, and since it is possible to turn left at the ‘no entry’ sign, drivers are unsure if they have reached the diversion already.
A left turn takes cars past the Kempinski San Lawrenz hotel to what appears to be a dirt track.
Visitors who defy the sign find a village in the grip of an unrelenting dust storm due to major road works on Triq San Lawrenz up to the square.
The gloom is broken intermittently by large signs warning cars heading to Dwerja to ‘expect delays’ due to ‘restricted access’ caused by separate works on the Dwerja road, which are almost complete.
Both sets of works are the responsibility of the Gozo Ministry.
Upon announcing the start of the Triq San Lawrenz works last November, the council had said it “made sure” the impact on residents and visitors “will be kept to a minimum”.
Driving into neighbouring Għarb, The Sunday Times found the village square fenced off due to ongoing road works. It was deserted except for two elderly British couples wandering around looking befuddled.
Throughout the island, there are signs directing drivers to ‘il-Port tal-Imġarr’ without an English translation, which vexes first-time visitors who cannot read Maltese.
And it’s not just visitors who are complaining – Gozitan Labour candidate Franco Mercieca has been very vocal about the issue.
Writing in The Times, the ophthalmologist accepted the need for road works, but he questioned why the works could not have either been made more intensive so that they would be completed sooner, or spread out over a period of five years to minimise disruption.