Mosta’s recently completed Triq il-Kbira has been closed off yet again, this time because the stormwater gratings installed as part of the previous roadworks have been found to be faulty.

The road – which is one of the main thoroughfares to enter Mosta – had spent almost two years closed due to road works which dragged on and on, much to the anger of residents and businesses situated in the area.

It’s not the first time that the road has had to be dug up again: back in August 2022 – when works had already been ongoing since November 2020 – a layer of asphalt laid in order for the road to be open for Mosta’s annual feast broke up due to heavy rains.

Some business owners complained that water had leaked into their establishments as a result of the flooding.

The road ultimately reopened to traffic in December 2022, but a number of business owners in the area have since filed a court application seeking damages over how long the works took.

Now, the road has been closed again, with the local council announcing the closure on social media and saying it was due to “maintenance” work.  The council said that the road will remain closed until Saturday.

PN local councillor Joseph Gatt said that it was “incredible” that the road had to be closed again for the gratings to be redone.  He questioned who was responsible for the extra costs, who was responsible for the works in the first place, and whether the works were certified by competent authorities in the first place.

“It is unacceptable that after all these years of inconvenience, reparatory works are already having to be done,” Gatt wrote.

In response, Mosta’s outspoken Labour mayor Chris Grech wrote that the gratings used were a faulty batch.

“Have you ever bought something and it happens to be defective, and you take it back to be replaced or it was replaced by right and they paid you for the expenses you had to undertake to change it?  This case is the same,” Grech wrote.

Grech said that the gratings were clearly defective as after a few months they separated from their frame and began to make noises every time a car passed over them.  He said that as soon as this was noted, different gratings were brought in for other roadworks in the locality.

The mayor said that the contractor or the company which provided the gratings will be paying for the works, not the council.

“Yes we are going to suffer four days with the road closed, but seriousness requires that they are replaced,” he said.

He added that rehabilitation works done in the Mosta square by the previous PN-led council had seen shoddy works which weren’t arranged or changed, noting that this is the difference between then and now.