When a planning application was submitted to Mepa to upgrade and widen the Coat Road last week, the issue which grabbed the headlines was that some 2,100 trees will be uprooted.

The planners have stated that half of these are not endemic and should have never been planted in the first place, and that where possible, endemic living trees will be uprooted and replanted in the vicinity. In addition, the authorities pledged that the number of trees will increase six-fold with the planting of new saplings along the newly designed route.

We have to realise that we cannot have our cake and eat it too. Malta’s roads are getting busier and busier. While the transport reform saw an overall improvement, it was still not enough to encourage enough people to leave their cars at home and take a bus.

The traffic at peak times, and especially on weekends in summer and schooldays, is just beyond belief. Every minor holdup, such as a bumper to bumper collision, becomes a gridlock as traffic tries to snake its way past.

The project (as a whole) begun in 2002 when the TEN-T road appellation was introduced to Malta, covering the road from San Lawrenz in Gozo down to the Freeport. The current state of affairs is that most of the road in Gozo has been upgraded to TEN-T standards while in Malta, the road from Ċirkewwa to Mellieħa Bay is being upgraded, as is the hill part of the Mellieħa bypass.

The St Paul’s Bay bypass was also upgraded, but, no news has been given of the missing link between Mellieħa and Xemxija, despite talk over the past years about a road taking a completely different route, possibly via a tunnel through the hillside. The next priority is understood to be the Kappara Junction.

The main issue with the Coast Road is safety. It has been the scene of many horrific accidents that have claimed lives over the years. Police reports say that many accidents happen because there is no means of separation between oncoming and ongoing traffic – 36% of accidents are head-on collisions. The plan is to widen the Coast Road to a total of four lanes where possible, with the installation of a central reservation. Other safety measures in the road will make bends less dangerous, straightening out some critical junctions, improving road alignment, separating the carriageways and improving street lighting.

In the UK, it has been proven that dual carriageways have half the number of accidents that take place in single carriageway roads – and this is one of the main reasons why the road has to be widened. The priority is safety, and not ease of passage (although this should improve drastically too). The architects also said that single carriageways are designed to take up to 13,000 vehicles in a day. But the Coast Road carries some 19,000 vehicles a day and the section at the Kennedy Grove carries up to 25,000 especially on summer days. Clearly, there is an impelling need for a dual carriageway. As the number of cars on the roads continues to increase – and as a result – the increase in accidents, something clearly needs to be done – and this is the answer.