As Malta settles down for the summer silly season, some might be driven to their wits end in trying to negotiate their way through traffic as the mercury soars, with no end to the gridlock in sight.

July, August and September are normally known to be a bit quieter on the roads as government departments shift to half days and kids are off school. No such luck this year. The roads seem to be getting ever more congested.

The latest news is that the Coast Road will not be accessible from the Pembroke end until 31 July, meaning that motorists will have to seek alternative routes through Naxxar and San Gwann for a ‘direct’ route to St Julian’s.

Transport Minister Joe Mizzi told Parliament in May that they project is expected to be completed by July and was expected to cost €53 million, up from the original €49 million.

Works fell behind schedule in February following the archaeological discoveries in the Salina Bay area. Malta has never been very good at sticking to deadlines when it comes to projects that are related with any kind of road construction. We, and the hundreds of thousands of other motorists who sit in their cars for up to an hour a day, hope that the project will completed sooner, rather than later.

People do understand that whenever an arterial project takes place in Malta, traffic increases because it has to make use of other smaller roads. However, a key lesson to be learned in all this, is to plan ahead.

As soon as the Coast Road project is completed, works are supposed to begin on the Kappara overpass. Perhaps this time, a few serious studies ought to be commissioned as to how best to alleviate the snarlups that are inevitably going to cause mayhem on the roads. Kappara junction is, perhaps, one of the busiest arterial junctions on the islands. Alternative routes ought to be seriously considered and an information campaign would also be welcome.

In addition to all of the above, the government and Transport Malta should also consider what is to become of bus routes that pass along Regional Road. If this project goes ahead without a traffic impact assessment, then there will be absolute chaos on the roads. One understands that to register progress, one must make sacrifices, but motorists should not expect to just have to make do with half baked solutions.

These are real problems. They affect people’s health and let us not forget that it was the Finance Minister himself who had said that traffic on Malta’s roads is costing the economy upwards of €1 million in extra costs.

Well, for the time being, we will have to make do with the alternative arrangements and hope that the project will be finished sometime this summer. When it is finally completed, we might all be able to sigh a collective sigh of relief and hope that traffic on other roads may finally subside and return to more manageable levels, at least until the Kappara junction project kicks off.