The traffic lights installed at the Marsa junction near the Addolorata Cemetery 21 years ago were dismantled overnight as Infrastructure Malta sets out new temporary lanes to facilitate work on the new junction project.

The lights will eventually be replaced by a network that will include seven flyovers, including three on top of each other. Some temporary lights have been put up on the temporary lanes.

Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg in a Facebook post hailed the progress on the project. He observed that the Labour government had installed the Marsa junction lights in 1997 to improve traffic flow to and from the south of Malta. The system worked well for the time, but was never improved and had become a problem.

"Twenty-one years on and after the transit of more than 500 million persons, the lights system was dismantled last night to be replaced by Malta's biggest roads project ever," he wrote.