The decades-old Cottage restaurant has been pulled down over the past couple of days and is now conspicuous by its absence.

The space occupied by the restaurant was needed to construct the slip road that will enable cars coming from the north to head to Gżira or turn up to San Ġwann as part of the project to upgrade the Kappara junction.

Gżira was a major destination for traffic at the old junction. An estimated 48 per cent of the 90,000 vehicles passing through every day turned down that way.

In another part of the project, excavation work is being done to prepare the foundations for the concrete pillars that are expected to support the two separate flyovers that will be built, one in either direction. The old roundabout is now gone and is being replaced by a hole in the ground.

The new roundabout that will replace it will be smaller and is expected to be about 1.2 metres lower, leaving headroom of just over five metres between the flyover and the road beneath it.

The whole aim of the project is to ease traffic. The junction used to handle about 6,000 vehicles per hour during peak times, creating long tailbacks and bottlenecks and a fair amount of frustration among drivers.

The project’s lead site architect, Antoinette Conti from Transport Malta, told The Sunday Times of Malta during a visit to the site on Friday that the works were all on schedule and were proceeding according to plan. A lot had already been completed in the first three months, she said.

An artist’s impression of the finished overpass. Image: Transport Malta

She explained that works have been divided into phases to allow traffic to use two lanes in each direction during construction. The roundabout has been replaced by a temporary one created near the junction at Zammit Clapp Hospital, retaining a number of key traffic movements.

Work is also under way on the construction of retaining walls for part of the Regional Road that will be widened. Services have all been passed in a walk-through duct under the new road.

Recycled material from the excavation itself is being used where possible. Otherwise, recycled construction waste from other projects is being used.

The stretch of road involved in this project is around 1.2 kilometres long, but the actual flyover will span under 200 metres.

Ms Conti said that the foundations for the concrete pillars, which will be placed on the new roundabout, will be ready for the first of the pillars, to be erected in December.

A total of 14 pillars will hold up the flyover, and it is expected that they will all be constructed on site.

Work is also underway on the new storm water infrastructure, which will eventually be connected to the National Flood Relief culverts nearby.

Ms Conti explained that works were currently taking place on the national pool and Gżira side. When this phase is completed, traffic will be shifted to that side and works will begin adjacent to the valley.

Traffic diversions are expected to remain in place throughout this time. In cases of emergency, the contractors have two tow trucks to rapidly remove vehicles that may be holding up traffic.