The Nationalist Party on Wednesday accused the government and Infrastructure Malta of not planning properly for necessary road works, saying that this “management by crisis” is causing frustration and inconvenience to motorists and residents alike.

PN spokesman were addressing journalists at Triq il-Fortizza tal-Mosta, which has been closed for the last few days due to work on the power distribution network. “And it is not the only one,” PN MP Mark Anthony Sammut said.

It is not the fault of the contractor, who carried out good work, Sammut said, rather, the road had to be dug up once more due to lack of planning. Every few years and even months, roads must be redone resulting in inconvenience to people and traffic as well as a waste of money.

He went on to mention other closed roads such as Triq id-Durumblat, also in Mosta, and Triq il-Pantar, in Lija, due to road works, and said that these all confirm that government is incompetent, without a plan, and without foresight.

PN MP Joe Giglio, who excused himself for being late, saying that he met with heavy traffic and closed roads, said that whilst maintaining roads is a good exercise, such work should be planned properly.

The consequences of this incompetence are threefold, Giglio said. Firstly, taxpayers’ money should be used only once for a project and not to be used again to redo it, he said. He added that this is unjustified use of taxpayers’ money, which should be used optimally, and that such infrastructure projects must be of good quality from the start.

Giglio went on to say that the redoing of such road works also causes an inconvenience a second time following the first project. He added that this contributes to the country’s traffic situation and increases it.

Finally, Giglio said that redoing projects has various environmental impacts from the emissions of the heavy vehicles used to carry out the project again, the dust raised by the works as well as noise pollution to surrounding areas.

He said that all these are the negative repercussions of a lack of planning, lack of coordination and incompetence.

PN MEP Candidate Louise Anne Pulis called the redoing of roads all over the country a “national farce”. She said that such road works cause problems to people with mobility problems, and to parents of small children.

Pulis added that it also causes problems for motorists, locals and even business owners whose shops are difficult to access. She added that the money for repeated road works could have been used to fund other projects.

The MEP candidate said that the air quality affects our health and reminded that the air quality control stations had been turned off in September and never switched back on. She went on to say that the tarmac factory in San Gwann has been at work for longer hours subjecting the locals to toxic fumes with a number of risks to health and a poor quality of life.

Pulis said that we deserve better and that are standards should be up to par with European ones.