The fact that part of the newly-rebuilt Marfa road only has a single lane to Cirkewwa does not change anything from the situation before the road works started, Transport Malta said.

Replying to questions posed by a reader through timesofmalta.com, TM also pointed out that the road to Cirkewwa will include a 1.5-metre wide cycle lane which can be used as a shoulder lane in emergencies.

The road between the Red Tower and the Riviera Hotel will be single lane towards Cirkewwa. In the direction to Mellieħa, the road will have two lanes to enable uphill overtaking of slow moving traffic.

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The segment between the Riviera Hotel and Cirkewwa will be single lane  towards Cirkewwa but there will be another queuing lane all along except near the junction to Paradise Bay, the hotel entrance and the bus stop. The road to Mellieħa in this sector will be single lane.  

Transport Malta said this arrangement would not take anything away from the previous road arrangement since overtaking was prohibited by concrete barriers and line markings.

It said that the width of the lanes and shoulders were in line with road design standards and Malta was not the only country using such widths.

"In every road design, one has to balance the safety considerations, capacity issues and minimising the environmental impact on the surroundings.

"The priority for TM is the safety of the road users and this was also addressed with the inclusion of the central barrier," the authority said.