A proposed four-lane road leading to SmartCity will avoid traffic congestion in Żabbar and Cospicua but will destroy a tract of irrigated agricultural land larger than a football pitch, a study has found.
The 643-metre long road will link Żabbar, just outside Bieb is-Sultan next to the St Patrick’s football ground, to the area next to the Cappuchin’s convent in Kalkara.
It is part of a wider plan to build a direct road link between SmartCity and Tal-Barrani thoroughfare to avoid traffic passing through Cottonera and Żabbar on its way to SmartCity.
The environmental impact assessment of the proposed link road was published yesterday on the Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s website.
The study says about 14,500 square metres of irrigated agricultural land will be lost to the 22-metre wide road, which will have a capacity to carry 23,000 cars. The development will affect some 24 farmers, the majority of whom are part-timers.
Apart from agricultural land, the road will uproot a number of commercial garages, an animal husbandry farm and two scrap yards. It will also pass through a stretch of abandoned agricultural land and have a negative impact on a borehole and a number of reservoirs.
“The proposed development will lead to a loss of agricultural land and production, together with the division of the Tal-Fata area into two large blocks of land,” the study says of the rather large area of continuous agricultural land towards the Kalkara side.
It highlights the introduction of traffic pollution into an area where no road existed previously as a negative impact and warns that the road may “increase the danger of speculation unless stringent conditions to ensure no development occurs on the road periphery are in place”.
The assessment highlights the removal of the scrap yards and the clearing of abandoned areas as benefits as well as the possibility of opening up a heritage trail in the ditch beneath the bastions situated metres away from the road.
The SmartCity township, under construction at Ricasoli, will generate substantial traffic and the road is necessary to avoid large volumes of cars passing through Cospicua and Żabbar.
However, the study points out that the construction of the road on its own will contribute to increased traffic congestion in Fgura, especially the area next to Hompesch roundabout. It urges a holistic approach to traffic management and road construction for the area between Tal-Barrani and SmartCity, a stretch of about 4.3 kilometres.
There are two other planning applications for the realignment and widening of the road between Hompesch Gate in Fgura and Bieb is-Sultan in Żabbar and another for the upgrade of the existing road between the Cappuchin monastery and SmartCity.
In the second phase of road development, Transport Malta will be submitting an application for the redesign of the link road between Tal-Barrani and Hompesch Gate.
The environmental assessment and the full development application (PA 237/07) can be viewed at the Mepa offices and the Kalkara and Żabbar council offices. Feedback on the application has to reach Mepa by October 4.