Transport Minister Joe Mizzi said this evening that the government's long-term aim for the roads was to rebuild them and introduce an ongoing maintenance programme to ensure that Malta did not return to the current situation.
Mr Mizzi was speaking on TimesTalk, where he said the government wanted to rebuild the roads as quickly as possible and would seek private sector investment for the purpose.
He pointed out that the present government had introduced better planning in road-building and roads built in the past two years had not been dug up again.
The quality of road repairs had also been improved, using hot-asphalt to ensure that repairs were more durable.
The problem of bad roads and road congestion did not start now, he said. Both problems had been long in coming and would take time to be solved.
Nationalist MP Ryan Callus said that the decade since EU membership had seen unprecedented investment in arterial roads, using EU funds, but there was clearly a problem with regard to residential roads and it was a mistake of the current government not to have increased the funds of local councils to deal with them.
Motoring enthusiast Tonio Darmanin said it was difficult to compare Malta's roads with those abroad. He had been on mountain roads which were better than Malta's, but some roads in Sicily were worse. He said a long term plan for the roads was needed.
Mr Mizzi said that was exactly what the government was doing. Having an efficient bus service was a step in that direction.
Mr Darmanin said the damage to the roads was caused by heavy, uncontrolled vehicles more than the large number of light cars.
Mr Mizzi said that of a road network of 2,300km, Transport Malta was only responsible for 200km and the rest was the responsibility of the local councils, although he still wanted to improve matters there as well. Transport Malta was therefore carrying out works in residential roads in conjunction with several councils, sharing the costs.
In many cases, however, it was clear that roads needed to be rebuilt. The government's plan was that once roads were built, somebody would remain responsible for their maintenance for 25 years. One way this could be done was through a public-private partnership.
Mr Callus said the works being held in conjunction with the local councils needed to be structured properly. He wondered if some councils knew about it.
Mr Mizzi said that all councils which sought help were assisted. But in the longer term, more funds were needed so that more roads could be rebuilt and then maintained so as not to return to the current situation.
While EU funds for main roads were practically exhausted, the government would seek to source funds from the private sector. Indeed, even finding enough contractors to handle the work was a problem.
Mr Mizzi said he had demanded a study by Transport Malta into why road marking faded in Malta, but not abroad. The paid used matched EU standards, he said, but there was still a problem.
TimesTalk also tackled the insurance angle, with Adrian Galea from the Insurance Association said that were €44 million worth of motor claims every year. (see his comments on video above).
Mr Darmanin said many of accidents were caused by poor road surfaces, putting pressure on premia paid by consumers.
A repeat of the programme will be uploaded on timesofmalta.com tomorrow.