The Swieqi local council is standing its ground against Infrastructure Malta’s plan to turn Qasam road into a one way road by including a hair-pin junction as part of the second phase to the on-going works on St. Andrew’s road, Swieqi mayor Noel Muscat told The Malta Independent.

“We cannot accept a hair-pin junction for Qasam road as it will never become two-way again,” Muscat said.

“It is a fact that this road has served the community well as a 2-way road for decades, and turning this into a 1-way exit-only, will wreak havoc on the residents of the area,” he added.

Muscat emphasised the importance for Qasam road to remain both an entry and exit for the Swieqi locality. He remarked how the name of the road itself “Qasam” indicates how it was intended as a crossing point for the locality of Swieqi.

Muscat told this newsroom that the Swieqi local council (SLC) is “extremely worried” about the lack of a “decent response” given to this newsroom by Infrastructure Malta in response to Council’s position − which he said widely reflects the opinions of the residents.

IM told this newsroom that a two-way street in this case won’t be able to serve the planned street alignment, that is, the demolishing of old buildings to make way for new ones.

In reply to this, Muscat said the resolution to that problem is obvious; “we do not need to tell IM of the solution to that impasse.”

Muscat noted that the council would agree to a process of road widening for Qasam road but that the road must remain a two-way street with both entry and exit in place.

Muscat noted how when both IM and the local council had first agreed on the road work plan for St. Andrew’s road, which saw a new roundabout to be constructed between Luxol and Qasam, the council had already shown how “open to discussion” it was since they had agreed to IM’s proposed changes on the roundabout design and had in fact agreed to removing the right exit for Ibrag road.

IM had told this newsroom that they chose this option for Qasam as some of the SLC’c proposals “were found to be unsustainable.” However, Muscat noted how the council made one main proposal − that of a “properly designed” roundabout on St. Andrew’s road, between Luxol and Qasam road − which IM had then planned and submitted a planning application for it themselves.

The current IM plan for the hairpin on Qasam Road was rebutted straight away by the SLC and has not yet been submitted by IM to the planning authority for approval.

Thus Muscat stated “it is imperative that no works are carried out on this junction before an agreeable solution between the Swieqi local council is found.”

“It is evident that Infrastructure Malta is blatantly failing to factor in, not only the current traffic load accessing Swieqi, but also the future requirements of an ever-growing town, and which has hardly any decent entrances and exits” he continued.

Muscat added that the SLC’s consultant assured that the proposed roundabout poses far less safety risk than the current IM proposal which includes ‘hair-pin’ bends further down the road.

Muscat “totally rebutted” IM’s statement that in directing Swieqi traffic Northwards to the newly constructed roundabout at the bottom of Prekursur road, (and thus not constructing a new roundabout on St. Andrew’s road) users will be given a safer route, since, he said, this will create more traffic congestion as the present roundabout has “already proved to be inadequate”.

IM told this newsroom that it wasn’t required to apply for a planning permit for the on-going “preparatory” works on St. Andrew’s road − seeing as the changes to the road’s traffic management is intended to reduce collision risks, and “other related improvements within the footprint of the road’s existing structures”.

The current road works are closing the southbound crossing at the traffic-lights controlled junction between St. Andrew’s road and Ibragg road, from Swieqi towards St Julian’s. Thus IM is doing away with the right exit on Ibragg road such that cars at the end of St. Andrew’s road must exit left towards Bahar ic-Caghaq and use the new roundabout below Prekursur road.

IM however will soon be submitting a development application for new hairpin junction along Qasam road, which will be open to public consultation, as per applicable Planning Authority procedures, an IM spokesperson told The Malta Independent.