The government’s announcement that the €3.5 million Buġibba and Qawra promenade project had been completed has come as a surprise to residents who say work was carried out in a rush.
As a result, Qawra residents told the Times of Malta, the pavement along the stretch of road, starting just metres from the social services office, is in shambles.
According to the residents, the tiles had to be replaced after this was dug up to fix underground pipes. However, the pavement seems to have been repaired in haste and some tiles are already loose.
“When the work was being carried out, we were pleasantly surprised by the very professional way it was carried out. Old pipes were replaced and several layers of asphalt were laid down.
“Asphalting works were completed a month ago and we expected the workers to return to properly finish off the job but here we are, more than three weeks later, and it seems this will not be the case,” one resident said.
Pointing to the side of the road, the Qawra resident said that the pavements had been dug up all the way along the promenade and this resulted in an uneven pavement, with several areas missing tiles altogether.
The resident said that he was also appalled to realise that leftover material would not be cleared up, resulting in broken tiles and unused asphalt strewn everywhere.
“There is a heap of asphalt dumped just beside a sign clearly stating that no dumping is allowed! There are also broken tiles everywhere. I make use of a crutch and it’s difficult to walk here. I cannot imagine someone in a wheelchair or with a pushchair being able to make their way around,” the resident said.
We expected the workers to return to properly finish off the job
Announced in April, the project carried out by Transport Malta involved the application of 42,000 square metres of asphalt along 4.32km of roads in the major tourist area. Apart from roadworks, contractors also replaced some domestic utility connections and painted new markings.
The investment was the first to be funded by the newly-introduced eco-contributions paid by tourists.
Earlier this year, resident and shop owners complained to this newspaper that the poor state of the roads was scaring tourists away with the state of most of the roads on the promenade going from bad to worse.
This newspaper also reported last month that there was no call for tenders issued for the project, with direct orders given to various road contractors within the framework of a system usually only used for small emergency work.
claire.caruana@timesofmalta.com