Updated 5pm with PN reaction

A €70 million call to rebuild 170 residential roads will be issued on Monday, bringing the total of resurfaced roads for this year to 290.

“There will be no compromise over the quality of the roads, and if contractors do not reach our expectations, they will need to redo the work,” Transport Minister Ian Borg told the media.

The projects form part of the larger €700 million scheme for roadworks in seven years, a government’s electoral pledge.

An Infrastructure Malta spokesman told Times of Malta that the roadworks contract included a five year guarantee on quality of works, however the roads were being built to last up to 20 years, depending on developments in the area and the frequency of use of the road.

Such roadworks were previously left in the hands of local councils, and would have taken tens of years to complete due to councils' financial limitations, the minister added.

Most of the streets, such as Triq Ħadd in-Nies in Żabbar will need to be built from scratch as they had never been done before, while the rest will be resurfaced, Dr Borg told Times of Malta.

Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The contractors need to guarantee the quality of the works and if tests, which are being carried out on the material and the completed roads themselves, prove that the roads are not of high standard, they will have to redo the roadwork, he added.

This was the case of the Mellieħa bypass, which has to be resurfaced at the contractor's expense as the quality of the works carried out did not meet the necessary standards.

Following the first call for the rebuilding of 120 residential roads, there are currently five different consortia of contractors who are carrying out works on five sets of residential roads.

Works are nearing completion in Triq Ħadd in-Nies itself, Vjal Sir Temi Zammit in Ta’ Xbiex, Triq Wied Għomor in St Julian’s and Triq l-Għarnuq in Fgura.

The new tender will see work on 170 streets, totalling 52 kilometres of rebuilt roads and 85 kilometres of pavements. The work will include replacement and extension of services, work on stormwater systems and signage, among others.

PN disappointed that government not moving services from under roads

The PN accused the government of going for quick wins, saying that it should be investing in the creation of channels to be used for infrastructural services, rather than spending millions just to surface the roads.

It called for a long-term plan which took such issues into account, to prevent roads having to be dug up again for service repairs.

See the list of newly-surfaced streets here.