Even if St Paul’s Bay Bypass is opened according to the new dateline, a month later than planned, the truth was that not all the bypass will have been opened to traffic, Labour leader Alfred Sant said yesterday.

Dr Sant said work on the rebuilding of the bypass had started in June last year, to be finished by May, 2007. Then last April Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett announced that the rebuilding would be concluded by the end of this month, or a month later than planned.

But the minister had also said that that part of the bypass which had collapsed would not be opened to traffic, so that motorists would have to use only one lane in that section. The section of the bypass which would not be open to traffic had collapsed some seven years ago, Dr Sant said. In July 2000 German experts had identified the need to repair the collapsed section with priority. In fact this had not been done and to date no one knew who would make good for the costs of about Lm500,000 to do the repairs.

The road had caved in because of illegal excavation works by Polidano Bros. Dr Sant said the irony was that Polidano Bros were today involved in the rebuilding of the bypass, which they themselves had damaged seven years ago.

The original cost estimate for the bypass had been Lm2.5 million but five months after the work started that was taken up to Lm3 million, or Lm500,000 over the original estimate. The Labour Party, Dr Sant said, was informed that the final cost would in fact be over Lm3 million.

Dr Sant said that over the last years the budgets of large projects had been exceeded by Lm191 million, and works had been delayed.

He added that the Labour party would tomorrow launch its project for the regeneration of the Bugibba, St Paul’s Bay, Qawra and Xemxija area.