A long-promised footbridge over the Mrieħel Bypass is not economically feasible, Transport Malta has concluded after studies showed that only an average of 42 people crossed the road in a week.
The authority is now looking at alternatives such as pelican crossing lights, even though it has a planning permit to build a footbridge, a spokesman told The Times.
“The footbridge designs have been completed and a Malta Environment and Planning Authority permit is in hand. In view of the re-thinking process, tender documents have not yet been prepared in relation to the construction of the footbridge,” the spokesman said, when asked whether plans were in hand.
However, traffic expert Simon Micallef Stafrace doubts the proposed solution of pelican lights is the best one, saying it may create more problems.
Five years after the death of two teenage girls who were run over while crossing this road, a community of around 300 residents, separated from Qormi’s centre by the bypass, is still waiting for the authorities to provide a safe means to traverse the busy artery.
Alternative arrangements being evaluated include the installation of traffic signals with integrated pedestrian facilities at the intersection with the industrial estate access road, the spokesman said. Guard rails would also help to channel pedestrians away from dangerous crossing areas.
The authority gave no deadline by when it expected to implement any new measures. For Dr Micallef Stafrace, a pelican light crossing would “defeat the scope of creating a safe passage for pedestrians and motorists”.
“Keeping in mind that motorists may be going at 70 kilometres per hour (the speed limit on the road is 80 kmh), finding a pedestrian crossing bang in the middle of the road will create problems. An overpass or an underpass is the better solution,” he said, insisting that economic considerations on their own should not be the yardstick by which such decisions are taken.
Last week, on the fifth anniversary of the death of Emma Marie Housley, 17, and Graziella Fenech, 13, Qormi mayor Jesmond Aquilina and other councillors reiterated their appeal for the government to build an overhead pass on the Mrieħel Bypass.
Last December Ivan Cutajar, 28, from Tarxien, was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for four years and fined €4,000 for causing the death of the two girls.
When the road was built some 20 years ago, the Tal-Blata housing estate was divided in two and residents on the industrial estate side of the bypass were cut off from the locality’s centre.
The area is not even serviced by public transport and children cross the main artery to attend various activities in Qormi.
The overhead pass has long been promised by the government but in the most recent parliamentary reply given by Roads Minister Austin Gatt last year, he said the project would be undertaken “when funds are allocated to the Transport Authority and depending on established priorities”.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com