A tender for the rebuilding of some 120 residential roads is to be issued in the next few weeks as part of the €700 million investment promised by the government, Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg said.
Speaking during a visit to the newly rebuilt Vjal ix-Xarolla in Żurrieq, the minister said these roads had never been adequately built and completed with an asphalt surface.
“It is not acceptable that we still have families living in areas which do not have an adequate road infrastructure, especially in a country like ours, which boasts of extraordinary economic progress,” he said.
The tendering process, he said, would being completed this year so that all the roads could be upgraded in 2019. The 120 roads in question were not identified.
Vjal ix-Xarolla was rebuilt in a €1.8 million project to transform it into a new two-way road connecting this locality to Safi and Kirkop, building a roundabout, and a segregated service road for safer access to the area’s residents in the process.
The arterial road and the adjacent service road include a 0.5-kilometre cycle lane, over one kilometre of new pavements, five pedestrian crossings and several new parking spaces for residents.
A total 4.2 kilometres of new water, waste water, electricity and telecommunications distribution networks supplying and servicing the area’s houses were also installed beneath the road surface.
New rubble walls were built along the side of the new road and a one-kilometre storm water pipeline to channel rain water from the new roads into two new underground reservoirs and an existing one.
Attention was given to the project site due to the area’s archaeological significance.
The required excavations for the road foundations and underground service networks were carried out under the continuous supervision of archaeologists, he explained.
In some areas, workers had to dig trenches with shovels, rather than mechanical excavators, to ensure that any historic remains uncovered were adequately retrieved and protected. Six ancient tombs and other historical features including cart ruts were discovered and these were studied by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, which specified measures which were adopted for their conservation.
The minister said this investment would be followed by another project to rebuild Triq il-Kuċċard, which links Vjal ix-Xarolla to Safi and Kirkop, in the coming weeks. This would also include a two-way road and an adjacent service road for residents.