Works have started on a pedestrian bridge across the Qormi/Mrieħel bypass, the prime minister said this morning.
The footbridge will consist of two steel structures on either side of the road rising from a concrete square base of around 10m sq. The bridge will be some 12 metres high.
The structure will be made of anti-reflective steel and screened by metal perforated architectural screening. It will have a lift and solar panels.
Residents of Tal-Blat in Qormi had long complained of being cut off from the town centre when the bypass was built in the early 1990s.
Their plight gained momentum when two girls were killed while crossing the busy artery to reach their house in 2005.
In comments on One Radio this morning Dr Muscat said the bridge was promised in the electoral programme but could not be built earlier because of the planning process.
PN INVOICES SENT TO COMPANY WITH NO INTEREST TO ADVERTISE
He said an Opposition leader who could not keep his party united was not be able to keep the country united
The Prime Minister touched on the apparent discord within the Nationalist Party after deputy leader Mario de Marco faced internal pressure to go.
Dr de Marco acted as legal advisor to the db Group for the controversial contract that saw the company take over the land at ITS in St George’s Bay to develop into a hotel and luxury residential apartments.
Yesterday Dr Busuttil said Dr de Marco was going nowhere, the PN was united, and no one would dictate its agenda.
Dr Muscat said Opposition leader Simon Busuttil could not be believed when he championed transparency.
He was referring to the party financing controversy that has hit the PN after the db Group claimed it had been asked to cover the wages of the party general secretary and CEO. The company said the money was transferred through payments made against invoices issued by the PN’s company Media.Link.
Dr Muscat insisted once again the invoices were false and accused Dr Busuttil of devising this method to circumvent the party financing law. He observed that according to a media report, the invoices were issued to db Group subsidiary Sky Gourmet, a caterer for airlines, which has no reason for advertising to the domestic market.
“The Opposition leader has been harping on transparency for four years… and yet he cannot publish the invoices of his own party company because it would show how he instructed it to engage in a system that breached the party financing law,” Dr Muscat charged.