Warped asphalt at two tight bends on Marina Road, Pietà, was repaired several months after the damaged surfaced.

Transport Malta had put the damage down to the road being surfaced using a rather new technology called micro-surfacing, which was meant to protect the underlying structure and reduce maintenance costs.

The blurry lines before. Photo: Steve Zammit Lupi

The skid-resistant tarmac should have also offered more grip to motorists negotiating the bends, where many crashes occurred, especially on rainy days.

A Transport Malta spokesman said the contractor had not been paid for the failed micro-surfacing works. The road had now been resurfaced in the “conventional way, at a significant discount”, he added.

Road markings are conspicuously absent from the newly resurfaced road, but the spokesman said that the markings “are queued within the programme of works and will be done soon”. The same contractor also surfaced the entrance road to Malta International Airport and Testaferrata Street in Gżira.

The contractor was not paid for the failed micro-surfacing, and the road was resurfaced conventionally, at a significant discount

Both roads had damage similar to the warping in Pietà.

EU funding has been secured to upgrade the country’s main arterial thoroughfares over the years, but many other roads remain in a pitiful state.

Responsibility for road maintenance is divided between local councils and Transport Malta. This has often resulted in disputes over whose remit a particular road falls under. Many a time, local councils are unable to foot the cost of road maintenance. The Birkirkara local council was informed by Transport Malta last month it would cost €2 million to repair just one road in the locality.

The council replied that this meant the repair bill for Bontadini Street would be double its annual €1 million budget. Although the road fell within the council’s remit, Transport Malta said it was willing to help out in securing “central and specific funding”.