Traffic around the Paceville-Pembroke area is being studied by a team of experts who are behind a number of congestion-easing measures introduced to other problem areas across the island.
Fredrick Azzopardi, who heads Infrastructure Malta, the new agency entrusted with upgrading the country’s road network, said a few solutions to bottlenecks in the Pembroke area had already been identified.
These, however, had been sent back to the drawing board in recent weeks after the controversial approval of a 38-storey tower and 17-storey hotel in St George’s Bay last month.
Mr Azzopardi, who used to head the State energy supplier Enemalta, said state-of-the-art computer systems were being used to run simulations of the traffic impact on the area from a number of mega-projects as well as changing population rates. The simulations go all the way up to 2030.
The plan identified so far includes the widening of St Andrew’s Road between the Paceville traffic lights and the Luxol Football Club.
Waiting time on the Żebbuġ bypass has been reduced by as much as 83 per cent during the evening rush hour
Mr Azzopardi said “nightmare” areas like the entrance to Pembroke along that same main road would need to be addressed, and the number of crossings would also have to be trimmed back.
Other similar interventions would be needed at a number of roads around Pembroke, providing access to the Coast Road and other neighbouring localities.
“The main obstacle we face is integrating these large development projects, like the City Centre project, but also those planned for Villa Rosa and the Corinthia Hotel, into a traffic management plan for an already very busy area,” he said.
Residents in Pembroke and surrounding neighbourhoods are incensed by the high-rise projects that are being given the thumbs up in the area – insisting that the road infrastructure could barely cope with the existing traffic rates, never mind that expected to be generated by massive construction projects.
Traffic concerns are seldom off the national agenda, but frustrations at the gridlock hit fever pitch after heavy downpours flooded problem area across the island in recent days.
Roads getting wider
Despite this Mr Azzopardi would not let the bad weather rain on his parade – he insisted interventions his agency had introduced were making Malta’s commutes easier on motorists’ tempers.
Road-widening initiatives outside the southbound exit of the Sta Venera tunnels, he said, were among the most effective measures taken so far.
The upgrade of Mdina Road in Żebbuġ had also been “a success”.
Vehicles queuing from the Siġġiewi roundabout to the De Rohann roundabout had dropped by an average of 63 per cent in the morning rush hour between 7am and 9am, and 59 per cent in the afternoon between 4pm and 5pm.
Traffic studies had shown the easing had reduced waiting time on the Żebbuġ bypass by as much as 83 per cent during some parts of the evening rush hour.
This, Mr Azzopardi was quick to add, did not mean there weren’t several other bottle necks that needed addressing.
He said in the next few weeks the authorities would start adding a number of lanes to the Aldo Moro thoroughfare in Marsa.
“We are going to have four southbound lanes and six northbound lanes there in the next few weeks. This will relieve a lot of traffic that stretches back to the Sta Venera tunnels,” he said.
Triq il-Labour outside the Labour Party’s ONE studios will be transformed into the island’s widest stretch of road by the end of the year. The road’s traffic lights will be removed and eight lanes will be split between four heading north and the rest flowing to the south of the island.
Mr Azzopardi said this would happen despite the fact that the area is due to be transformed with a massive flyover project.
“We want to ease traffic here before the Marsa Junction project is finalised – it is part of an attempt to ease traffic to several other parts of the island,” he said.