Opposition Leader Alfred Sant yesterday said that after the works on the Mosta ring road were completed four years and four months beyond the deadline, and costing Lm730,000 more than planned, the surface was already substantially damaged.
During a press conference held onsite, Dr Sant pointed out that the Nationalist Party had promised, in its 2003 electoral campaign, that road works would be of a high quality and completed without delays.
However, he said, the Mosta ring road made a mockery of this promise because it took years for the work to be done and it was not done well.
Dr Sant explained that the Nationalist government’s original aim was to start working on the ring road in January 2001 and complete it within a year, on a tender worth Lm570,000.
“In October 2002, nine months down the line, Censu Galea, who was Roads Minister at the time, said that only 63 per cent of the work was done,” said the opposition leader.
He went on to say that Mr Galea had promised that the Mosta ring road would be ready in February 2003, and also stated that the value of the tender had gone up by 58 per cent, amounting to Lm900,000.
Dr Sant said that in April 2004, the present Roads Minister, Jesmond Mugliett stated that 80 per cent of the work had been completed, and promised that the rest would be done by September 2004.
In October 2004, Mr Mugliett said that 90 per cent of the work was completed , but that the value of the tender had gone up to Lm1.2 million.
Dr Sant said that even though a total of three different dates were given for the project’s deadline – January 2002, February 2003 and September 2004 – the project was eventually completed in May 2005.
Furthermore, he added, four different figures were given regarding how much the project was going to cost – Lm570,000, Lm900,000, Lm936,000 and Lm.1.2 million – but eventually the project cost Lm1.3 million.
However, Dr Sant pointed out, the surface of the Mosta ring road was substantially damaged and having a negative effect on traffic.
“This is not the only example, as the same thing happened with roads financed under the Italian protocol,” he said.
This simply showed that the government was failing in its aim to use capital public investment as a foundation for the local economy, said Dr Sant.
“The government is not completing the work within the set deadlines, is spending more that it budgeted for and the quality of work is defective,” he said.
In a separate statement issued later in the afternoon, the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) yesterday categorically denied “the insinuations” made by Dr Sant, and said that the Mosta ring road, which was rebuilt from scratch, is not damaged.
The ADT said that the road, which is almost 1.8km long, was built from scratch with almost 13,600 square metres of asphalt.
Service ducts for all the amenities were built underneath most of the pavements along with a new junction where the ring road crosses 21 September Avenue.
The Authority went on to say that the damaged section of the road is a small area at the end of the ring road, close to the Mosta Technopark – an area that was not built from scratch.
Furthermore, it was decided in the original plans, that a roundabout was to be built close to the Mosta Technopark. However, this project was postponed and that part was not rebuilt, but simply resurfaced.
The ADT said that as soon as that part of the road was damaged, it opened an inquiry and compiled a report.
The authority added that it immediately began preparing to repair the damaged area after it carried out inspections, and said that the works should begin in the next few days.
However, it stressed the repairs will not take place due to pressure from the Opposition, but simply because the ADT was prepared to do them.
The ADT invited Dr Sant to visit the entire ring road, and to see for himself that the rest of the road was not damaged.
The authority also categorically denied Dr Sant’s claims that the roads built with Italian Protocol funds were damaged. Any damages had been seen to and all these roads were now in good condition.