Members of the public and several eNGOs were understandably alarmed by news of the proposed road-widening works between Marsalforn and Rabat in Gozo. In addition to the road-widening, the proposed roadworks would also include improvements of major junctions within Rabat as well as the construction of a new bypass.
If realised, the entire project would lead to the felling of 177 trees, 44 of which are protected, and the loss of over 12,000sqm of agricultural land. It is not clear which specific trees are being felled nor which portions of agricultural land will be lost, since the drawings pertaining to this application are still not available to the public.
The proposed new bypass connecting Triq Gorg Pisani to Triq Patri Gacintu Camenzuli, although coming at an environmental cost, could prove to have some long-term benefits for the residents of Rabat as traffic within Gozo’s capital will be diverted to the periphery of this town and away from the dense centre.
The same cannot be said for the proposed widening of the carriageway linking Rabat to Marsalforn.
This single carriageway is characterised by its rural surroundings and mature trees that line vast extents of it. Through this project the road would be widened to 8.4m. An additional 3m segregated bi-directional cycle lane will also being included.
The supposed need for the widening of this road for increased car-capacity remains baffling since the Project Description Statement itself notes that “In general, traffic congestion is not present in either traffic flow direction along the link, except for occasional congestion occurring in the initial segment of the street”.
In fact, the only justification for the project provided in the Project Description Statement is to “eliminate the existing blind spots” and somehow address excessive speeds noted along this road “to lessen the current injuries occurring along this link”.
The document fails to provide any statistics on the actual number of accidents being referred to, which information would be necessary in order to illustrate factually the extent of how dangerous the road possibly is.
Still, with the applicants themselves confirming that this road does not experience congestion, couldn’t the blind spots and issues of excessive speeds be addressed through less invasive methods that would not necessitate the widening of this road? Also, couldn’t it be argued that widening the road will actually encourage faster speeds making the road more unsafe?
The Project Description Statement was prepared by Perit William Lewis, the architect who also a consultant to Infrastructure Malta [IM] on the Central Link Project. He is also one of the partners of CrowdNet, the company engaged to carry out the Cost Benefit Analysis [CBA] concerning the same Central Link Project, through a direct order by Transport Malta back in December of 2017. It was through this document that the current major roadworks along the full length of Attard were decided to be the favoured solution to address congestion in the area. The CBA was a purely monetary-based exercise that was ultimately used to quash and dismiss all environmental concerns that were then raised during the Environmental Impact Assessment process.
Like Central Link, the Marsalforn-Rabat project is also being driven as one that is necessary since it forms part of the Comprehensive Ten-T network. The purpose of the Europe wide Ten-T network is to make sure that people and goods move freely along these principle routes that provide connectivity and unhindered movement throughout Europe’s main nodes.
Improving a route along the Ten-T network does not necessitate widening the road nor does it entail prioritizing infrastructure for private motor-vehicles. An improved link could be achieved by investing in public transport to curb private car-use, thus eliminating the need for road-widening. Investing in a cycling network as a stand-alone project would also improve the capacity of these routes without necessitating further pandering to private car-use.
It’s also worth noting that Malta is obliged to ensure the improvement of the Comprehensive Ten-T network by 2050. Infrastructure Malta repeatedly referred to this when pushing for the Central Link project. Given that this project is being implemented to fulfil Malta’s commitment to the Ten-T network 2050 deadline, would it imply that implementing a series of road-widening projects and new-bypasses to increase car-capacity along these routes is IM’s long-term plan? It is also worth asking whether the same roads being widened today, to fulfil our 2050 obligations, will still be functioning in 30years time, after three more decades of continued car-dependency.
The Project Description Statement was prepared in order for the Environment and Resources Authority [ERA] to assess whether the proposed roadworks around Rabat stretching to Marsalforn, would require an Environmental Impact Assessment [EIA]. From the information available on the ERA’s website, it seems that the ERA has concluded that this project will not in fact require an EIA. ERA’s screening and analysis on the application has still not been made available to the public.
Tara Cassar is an architect focusing on planning policies and environmental issues related to land-use, active with a number of local eNGOs.
[email protected]