A sewage main pipe underneath the Coast Road has failed, Transport Malta said this week.

It said it had been informed by the Water Services Corporation that a sewage main pipe underneath the Coast Road has failed and, as a result, part of the overlying road in Bahar ic-Caghaq, is being damaged by the pressurized drainage.

In turn, the burst sewage main pipe under the recently-inaugurated Coast Road has led to emergency road works. 

The incident has led to an outflow at Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq and a warning by the Environmental Health Directorate against bathing at the dog-friendly beach.  Information signs indicating the area have been set up. 

So everything is connected: the drainage outflow under the road caused pollution at the dog-friendly beach..

Works on the road from Splash and Fun up towards the roundabout were still in progress yesterday.

People were quick to comment and it is quite surprising to see how many notice things that one might miss.

One commented: damage is underground - a burst sewer - one of the pipe sections must have been cracked when they installed it or cracked it while installing it. Now we have drainage seeping out under the Coast Road probably pushing up the surface and with the chance of ending in the sea ...

Another said:  “Road drainage design has as its basic objective the reduction and/or elimination of energy generated by flowing water. The presence of excess water or moisture within the roadway will adversely affect the engineering properties of the materials with which it was constructed. Cut or fill failures, road surface erosion, and weakened subgrades followed by a mass failure are all products of inadequate or poorly designed drainage.”

Whatever the cause, and while it is in a sense acceptable for a new road to have teething troubles, it must be said that this road, unveiled less than a year ago with all the chrism of the ninth wonder of the world, has quite a number of weak points that are only now becoming evident, faulty design and also still not completed.

First, the bicycle track is discontinuous, stopping at the most dangerous parts.

The stretch of the road between Salina and the Coastline Hotel is very dangerous for pedestrians. They are sometimes forced to walk on the road, especially if they miss on the alternative footpath near the old building now restored as part of the Saltpans project.

While there was much effort put in when the Queen was coming, works left unfinished have remained so. Such as the railings on that same stretch of the road.

Some, most notably Censu Galea MP, have commented on the forest of traffic lights that are still not functioning all along the road. They seem to be getting installed at the rate of one a month, or so.

Obviously, this is besides the basic design of the road, which while beautiful and smooth, could have been designed better. But it’s too late for that now.