Efforts to meet the end-of-year deadline for completion of the controversial Tal-Balal Road project have failed and Infrastructure Malta would not give a specific date.
However, a spokesman told the Times of Malta that “weather permitting, the first layers of asphalt to the newly-built lanes would be laid in the coming days, so that the project could be completed as soon as possible”.
Originally scheduled to be ready in time for the re-opening of schools after last summer, the project has been marred by controversy on various fronts. Its objective is to ease traffic from the north towards the University and Mater Dei Hospital by increasing a lane on either side.
In August, soon after the work started, the Times of Malta reported that no planning permit had been sought for the €4.4 million project despite clear provisions in the law stating this was a must.
It was only at a later stage that Infrastructure Malta, a State entity set up a month before to revamp road construction projects and take them to a higher level, filed a planning application to “sanction” the works. Sanctioning is the term used whenever an applicant seeks to regularise an illegal development.
The first layers of asphalt to the newly-built lanes would be laid in the coming days
Further controversy emerged when it transpired that private land had been expropriated without the owners being notified in advance. An estimated 9,000 square metres of additional land over and above the previous footprint was required.
Meanwhile, work fell behind, despite Infrastructure Malta justifying its decision to start without a permit to complete the project by last October. Part of the delay was caused by the decision, midway through the work, to double the size of the project, because initially only the southbound carriageway was going to be widened.
Towards the end of September, the agency announced that the road completion date had been postponed to November. Subsequently, Infrastructure Malta CEO Frederick Azzopardi admitted, during an onsite visit, that this deadline would be missed too. This time around no specific completion date was given but Mr Azzopardi pledged that efforts would be made to finish it by the end of the year.
While the stretch of road near Naxxar is at a relatively advanced stage, works at the other end of Tal-Balal Road on the outskirts of San Ġwann suggest that little progress has been made so far.
When contacted about the completion date and the cause of the delays, the agency insisted that the project necessitated a series of ancillary works, like the laying of new water pipes, telecommunication ducts and high voltage electricity cables. It also noted that parts of it had to be reconstructed from scratch and strengthened because some parts had been built over disused quarries.