The southbound carriageway of the Marsa-Hamrun Bypass, from the Santa Venera tunnels and Mriehel towards Marsa, will be closed all day long tomorrow, Saturday 29th September, as Infrastructure Malta starts laying a new asphalt surface to conclude this road’s €5 million project commenced earlier this year.
Road users are encouraged to use alternative routes through Msida and Marsa (Triq Dicembru 13), or from Zebbug, Qormi and Luqa, when travelling towards the south of Malta. The southbound carriageway of the Santa Venera tunnels (Regional Road) should be avoided as well, since its exit towards the Marsa-Hamrun Bypass will be closed and all road users will be diverted to an alternative route through Qormi. Vehicles travelling to the south of Malta from the Mriehel Bypass will be diverted to Msida or Qormi, since its connection to the Marsa-Hamrun Bypass will be closed as well.
Police and Transport Malta traffic management officers will be stationed in the area, and along all alternative routes, to guide road users in difficulty. Transport Malta’s emergency vehicle breakdown towing service will be available at all times in this area as well. Road users can call the emergency support line 8007 3399 to request this assistance.
Works are scheduled to commence early on Saturday morning, at 0200hrs. The southbound carriageway of the Marsa-Hamrun Bypass will be immediately closed, so that the agency’s contractors can safely start applying the first of two final asphalt layers. This process will take over 28 hours of continuous asphalt laying and compacting works to cover the entire area of the three-lane carriageway. The road will be reopened on Sunday morning.
The same carriageway will be closed again on Tuesday evening (2nd October), between 1900hrs and 0500hrs of the following morning, to apply the topmost asphalt cover. Similar works to complete the northbound carriageway of the same road will be carried out later next month, between Saturday 13th and Wednesday 17th October.
Through a €5 million project launched earlier this year, the Marsa-Hamrun Bypass was widened to a six-lane road to improve the safety and efficiency of the junctions and slip roads connected to it, eliminating several bottlenecks that caused delays to thousands of road users travelling along this south-central route. This investment is reducing travelling times in this road by 42%, whilst improving the area’s air quality by decreasing congestion emissions.
The Marsa-Hamrun Bypass project, which may be part-financed by the European Union’s Cohesion Fund, is scheduled to be completed in April 2019. However, the new and rebuilt lanes of this road were made available to road users last week. Infrastructure Malta is planning to complete the project in October, several months ahead of schedule.
This project also forms part of a wider €14.2 million investment to upgrade the arterial south-central road link, from Triq Aldo Moro in Marsa, to the Santa Venera tunnels and the Mriehel Bypass at Santa Venera and Qormi. It includes another two projects, including the second phase of the Marsa Junction Project at the Addolorata Cemetery intersection and the rebuilding of parts of Triq Dicembru 13 and the northern end of Triq Aldo Moro, which are also being completed in October.
Together, these upgrades are giving road users over 15 kilometres of new or rebuilt lanes and 10 upgraded junctions along way, reducing travelling times and increasing road safety whilst improving air quality in nearby localities.