Two road engineers have expressed concerns about the quality of ongoing resurfacing works, carried out for the upcoming Papal visit, and think such temporary fixes are likely to come apart in the near future.
"Given the type of work and the speed at which they are being carried out, I don't think it is the government's intention that they should last long. The works are superficial in nature and any defects at the base levels are not being addressed, so they will resurface," one road engineer said.
Another engineer agreed that the works were clearly "a temporary solution" for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI on April 17 and 18. "From an engineering point of view they are a disaster. I don't expect them to last too long before coming apart," he said.
Both agreed that the problem lay in the fact that the asphalting was being carried out on the surface layer of the road rather than through the multi-layering of materials.
Hugh Arnett, a motoring journalist and former traffic management consultant, agreed adding that the works were "a dreadful cosmetic job that would most likely last two or, maybe, five years".
Looking on the bright side, motoring enthusiast Tonio Darmanin said the Pope's visit at least got the authorities to do something about the roads. He said he was aware that Transport Malta planned to redo the roads, however, it was taking too long and he disagreed with the "patch-work mentality".
Over the past few weeks, road works have become a common sight around the island as the country prepares itself for the Pope's 26-hour visit. Apart from the resurfacing of roads, works include embellishment jobs such as the cleaning of walls and painting or road-markings.
The Pontiff will be passing through 33 localities and 40 parishes including Valletta, Floriana, Attard, Kalkara, Żebbuġ and Qormi. In preparation for road works in several of these localities, Transport Malta is placing full-page adverts in newspapers announcing road closures and regretting any inconvenience caused.
Such works are today expected to start on various arterial roads in the Cospicua and Kalkara area through which the Popemobile will be passing.
When the roadwork marathon started some weeks ago, some timesofmalta.com readers took a humorous approach and invited the Pope to pass through their roads or to visit Malta more frequently. But others felt offended and saw the cosmetic works as a sign of disrespect towards Maltese citizens who had to live with mediocre roads.
"How embarrassing and disrespectful to the Maltese people; this is simple proof that even those people charged with the responsibility of Malta's upkeep know the actual state of the island is not good enough," one man wrote.
A government spokesman had explained that such works were scheduled to take place anyway throughout the year but some had been moved forward. He explained that the Pope's visit was an important international event and Malta wanted to ensure it looked its best.
Questions sent to Transport Malta a week ago, asking for the cost of road works carried out for the Papal visit and the type of works planned remained unanswered at the time of writing.