Infrastructure Malta will be closing the slip road connecting the Marsa Hamrun Bypass to the Mriehel Bypass, from Monday 10 to Friday 15 September, to rebuild it as part of the final works of the Marsa Hamrun Bypass project.

The slip road exit from the northbound carriageway of the Marsa Hamrun Bypass to the beginning of the Mriehel Bypass needs to be closed off for several days to replace its foundations and resurface it with new layers of asphalt. Due to this closure, the northbound carriageway of the Marsa-Hamrun Bypass will be restricted to one lane only, leading to the Santa Venera tunnels and on towards Msida and St Julian's.

Whilst this major connection of the arterial road network is closed, road users travelling from the south of Malta towards Attard, Balzan, Rabat, Mosta and other localities in the same direction are encouraged to use the alternative route through Qormi and Zebbug. Road users will be directed to use these alternative routes through roadside diversion signs posted along different junctions of the northbound carriageways of Triq Aldo Moro, Triq Dicembru 13 and the Marsa-Hamrun Bypass.

Infrastructure Malta is coordinating these works with Transport Malta’s traffic management team and with the Police, to have several officers patrolling the area, to assist and guide road users in difficulty. Other Transport Malta and Police officers will also be monitoring the alternative routes, including Gudja, Luqa, Qormi and Zebbug, to ensure that these routes are not obstructed. 

At the same time, during the next two weeks, Infrastructure Malta will also be carrying out several other works during the night, to complete the Marsa-Hamrun Bypass upgrade project, as well as another project launched earlier this summer to improve the connections between Triq Aldo Moro (matchsticks factory area), Triq Dicembru 13 and the Marsa-Hamrun Bypass. These overnight works, including the laying of the final asphalt surfaces of the upgraded roads and junctions, will require partial lane closures during the night as well. Road users are encouraged to carefully follow the signposted diversions or to use alternative routes. Lanes closed during the night for these works will be reopened every morning before 0600hrs.

The Marsa-Hamrun Bypass project, which started earlier this year, includes the rebuilding of this four-lane, dual carriageway arterial road to add two lanes, one in each direction. One of the new lanes will eliminate the bottleneck at the southbound exit of the Santa Venera tunnels, where the existing two-lane carriageway narrows to one lane, causing major difficulties to road users travelling towards the southern part of Malta. In the northbound carriageway, the new third lane will facilitate safer connections between Qormi and Mriehel, as road users will no longer have to shift from one lane to another to travel from the Qormi slip road to the Mriehel Bypass.

The Marsa-Hamrun Bypass project, which may be part-financed by the European Union’s Cohesion Fund, was originally scheduled to be completed in April 2019, but was prioritised with additional resources so that its six new lanes will be opened to road users this month.