The week that the government had announced as being “delivery week”, mainly for the delivery, a day early, of the new hospital after its seemingly interminable saga, has been undermined and ruined by the non-delivery of the St Paul’s Bay Bypass.

The road, which has been closed, at times partially, recently totally, since last year, was supposed to be re-opened last May.

Up till last Saturday, when Transport Minister Jesmond Mugliett visited the site, accompanied by the media, he was still promising that the road would be re-opened by Friday, even though it was still clearly not ready to be re-opened.

Since then, up to and including Friday, not a peep from the normally loquacious DOI, leading many to believe that the minister, and the government, would keep their word.

But on Friday, the many who travelled to the beaches in the north, or to cross over to Gozo (and caused a huge traffic queue all the way from Burmarrad to Targa Gap) found that the road was still closed, especially the bottom part, that near the Xemxija roundabout, still very much unfinished.

At no point did the government issue any statement on Friday saying the road was still closed; in fact, some drivers disregarded the signs and drove, notwithstanding the risks and dangers.

It was only yesterday morning that the ministry at last issued a statement in which it blithely set next Thursday as the new date for the road’s re-opening.

And equally blithely, it revealed that it had known as far back as last week that the work would not be completes, for, as it claimed, two weeks ago somebody requested the connection of the drainage main from the Xemxija roundabout to the Tal-Fjuri residential area, some 150 metres in all.

It is held that such a request could only have come from the Water Services Corporation and, if so, one has to ask what took WSC so long to decide.

Anyway, according to the ministry itself, the request was made a fortnight ago and the minister could not have been left in the dark about it when he announced the imminent re-opening of the road.

Even though, as the ministry put it, incredible pressure was exerted by ADT on the contractor and workers were forced to work from pre-dawn to 9pm, it was not completed on time.

Nor will the work be completed by Thursday, even though the road may be re-opened for, as Mr Mugliett himself said last week, the section of the road which had collapsed probably due to development work just beyond it, will only be ready in September, after an agreement was reached with Polidano Brothers.