he decision to appoint a tender was taken after German expert Wolfgang Stremmel gave the Maltese authorities a one-year certification on the bridge. This does not mean that the bridge will collapse within one year, a government spokesman explained, but it meant that before another year, no more tests need to be carried out to determine whether the bridge was safe. Initial preliminary tests were carried out in May when only a three-month certification was issued.

Professor Stremmel, who was contracted by the Malta Transport Authority through German company GTZ, is a leading German bridge inspector. He was appointed by the German government after reunification to inspect more than 1,000 bridges in the former East Germany.

Professor Stremmel has now certified the Manwel Dimech Bridge fit for use for another year but stressed that this certification was issued with the current traffic calming measures still in place. Therefore, the imposition of a speed limit of 45 kilometres per hour and a maximum tonnage of 30 tonnes for heavy vehicles are still in place.

The spokesman said that based on this certification, the government will soon issue a call for tenders to contract engineers who will assess what repairs need to be carried out on the bridge and also to design these repairs.

A separate tender will then be issued for the repairs to be

carried out.