The rebuilding of the roundabout near the St Vincent de Paule residence which connects Qormi to Ħal Farruġ, Luqa and a number of other localities in the south of Malta, was completed in the past few days, the Transport Ministry said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Transport Malta’s Roads and Infrastructure Directorate designed this main link in the route between Qormi and Luqa from scratch, towards improved efficiency and safety for all those who use it, with quicker journeys and a reduced risk of accidents. The required works were completed in the past few days, when the final layers of asphalt were implemented around the roundabout and the new lanes built with it.

This roundabout connects Triq Ħal Qormi, Triq Ħal Farruġ, Triq l-Ingiered, which goes towards Marsa and Triq Ħal Luqa. Thanks to investment in this infrastructure, the roundabout was built on a new design so that it could be more appropriate for the great volume of vehicles which pass through it every day. At the same time, the approach lanes leading to the same roundabout were increased, both from the Qormi side as well as from the Luqa side and from Triq l-Ingiered.

Two new bypass lanes were also built — these will allow one to travel from Qormi to Triq l-Ingiered and from Luqa to Triq Ħal Farruġ without entering the roundabout.

Due to these changes, the alternative route through the road beside the golf course and Triq l-Ingiered was also improved, with less waiting time to travel from Qormi, Marsa and Mrieħel to Ħal Farruġ, Luqa, Gudja, the Malta International Airport and a number of other localities in this direction. This is so the roundabout was designed specially to reduce waiting time to cross from Triq l-Ingiered to Triq Ħal Qormi in the direction of Luqa. These improvements also continue eliminating difficulties around the two main roundabouts in Qormi at either end of Triq Manwel Dimech, which were rebuilt from scratch in the second half of last year.

The improvement of this roundabout forms part of the long-term work which started in June 2017, towards the rebuilding from scratch and the improvement of quality of the roads and main junctions along the route which joins the areas of Kirkop, the Malta International Airport and surrounding localities, with Gudja, Luqa and Qormi in the direction towards Marsa and Valletta. As part of this investment, improvement works in the roads and roundabouts of Qormi, Luqa and Gudja were already completed in the past months.

The next step will see the commencement of another phase in this project, which includes the widening of Triq Ħal Qormi, between the roundabout which has just been completed and Luqa. This road, which is over a kilometre and a half long, will be rebuilt from scratch to remove a number of obstacles which increase journey time. Among other improvements, parts of this road will be widened from one lane in either direction to two lanes on either side.

Commenting about these works, Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects Ian Borg explained that the government’s commitment to achieve high quality road infrastructure with reduced journey times and a lower risk of accidents in the coming years will continue tirelessly.

“Apart from the investments we have already announced and launched in the past months, including several large projects such as the widening of the Marsa-Ħamrun Bypass, the building of seven flyovers instead of the traffic lights in Triq Aldo Moro in Marsa and the tunnels beneath the Santa Luċija roundabout, we will soon be giving further details about a number of other projects. We will also soon be launching the agency Infrastructure Malta, which will not only lead the investment of arterial road improvements, but will also commence with an unprecedented investment towards the improvement of the quality of the residential roads we live in.”

“This work we started in the past months will continue gaining momentum so that, as soon as possible, we can develop quality infrastructure which strengthens, instead of creating obstacles for, the progress of families and businesses in our country,” concluded Minister Borg.