A footbridge over the Mrieħel Bypass has still not been ruled out although Transport Malta cannot say how much it would cost.
Although the footbridge was still on the cards, the regulator was also looking at alternatives such as pelican crossing lights, a spokesman clarified, adding the option had never been discarded.
A tender for the proposed bridge had not been issued yet because TM was looking at the other options as well, the spokesman said.
Five years after the death of Emma Marie Housley, 17, and Graziella Fenech, 13, of Qormi, who were run over while crossing this road, a community of about 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.
According to a TM survey only 42 people a week cross the busy road.
The spokesman said: “Considering the statistics collected in relation to the economic effort required to invest in a footbridge, Transport Malta is, at this stage, in the process of evaluating possible alternative solutions.”
When asked for the extent of the “economic effort”, the spokesman said “the final cost of the bridge shall be determined when the designs are finalised”. However, he then added that “the footbridge designs have been completed and a Malta Environment and Planning Authority permit is in hand.”
In the meantime, TM engaged the services of a private contractor to install a crash barrier along the entire stretch of the bypass.
Last month, on the fifth anniversary of the death of the two girls, Qormi mayor Jesmond Aquilina and other councillors reiterated their appeal for the government to build an overhead pass on the Mrieħel Bypass. Ivan Cutajar, 28, of Tarxien, was given a two-year jail term suspended for four years and fined €4,000 for causing the girls’ death.
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 town centre.
The area is not serviced by public transport and children cross the main artery to attend various activities in Qormi.