Transport Minister Aaron Farrugia blamed a last minute order for additional works by the Mosta Local Council for the delays in the completion of roadworks to one of the locality’s main roads.

Answering a Parliamentary Question asked by PN MP Ivan Bartolo on the roadworks in Triq il-Kbira – which stretches from close to Ta’ Qali to the Mosta square – Farrugia said that the works are being handled by Infrastructure Malta.

The road has been closed to traffic since March 2021 after works first started in November 2020, leading to a total reorganisation of how traffic flowed in and out of Mosta and also leading to complaints from residents and businesses situated along the road.

These intensified after works in part of the road which had already been carried out were dug up again by contractors in recent weeks.

Farrugia said in his answer to Bartolo that because no works had been carried out on the road for a number of years, the road surface and the pavements had suffered extensive damage, while the services underground such as sewage and water pipework had to be changed.

Infrastructure Malta laid over four kilometres of new pipework underground and dug two storeys down in order to lay new drainage systems as well and to introduce a new rainwater gathering system, Farrugia said.

Farrugia said that because this is a narrow road, the new underground services had to be installed “delicately” next to each other and without interfering with the old systems which continued to be used to service the buildings in the surrounding zones until the new system were put in place.

Farrugia said that Infrastructure Malta had originally planned to finish all the works by the end of this month, noting that all that was left was to lay the final layer of asphalt in the last part of the road.

However, Farrugia said, as works were about to finish, the Mosta Local Council ordered additional works to take place in this last section of road closest to the town square. 

The works included culverts under the pavements so that wires which run along the building facades can be laid underground, and to use Lower Coralline Limestone (Gebla tal-Qawwi) for new pavements.

Farrugia said that Infrastructure Malta had to postpone the laying of the final asphalt as a result, and will complete the new works by the end of summer.

The Mosta Local Council was until very recently led by one of the PL’s newly elected MPs, Romilda Baldacchino Zarb, with Chris Grech now replacing her as Mayor.