Joseph Muscat’s administration has plagued us with many different problems, from corruption at the highest levels of government, to damage to our international reputation, to a series of top appointments that have failed, and keep failing miserably at their jobs.

But it has also plagued us with seven years of traffic hell.

One of Labour’s most prolific electoral pledges in 2017 was the promise to rebuild all of Malta’s roads within a seven-year timeframe, at a cost of some €700 million. The idea was applauded by many back then, but little did we realise how unprepared the country was for such a massive undertaking, and the suffering that this over-ambitious project would bring with it.

We were told that all these road projects, together with other major ones like the Marsa junction and the Central Link, would lead to shorter travelling times, more money saved on fuel and less pollution in the air. So far, that remains only a dream.

Over the past few weeks, the social media was awash with rants from motorists who spent hours stuck in traffic, in the stifling heat.

This is happening at different times of the day, not just in rush hour, and all across the country.

The Luqa and airport junctions remain an ever-changing maze of crooked lanes and traffic diversion signs. The project has been ongoing for months now and there is no sign that it will be completed any time soon. The traffic mayhem in the area is the worst kind of welcome for tourists arriving in Malta. As for those travelling abroad, going through the area might cause you a stomach ulcer from the stress and worry of missing your flight.

The Marsa junction project was supposed to solve the traffic issue in the south, yet Tal-Barrani Road and the Fgura/Paola areas are chock-a-block with traffic every morning and afternoon.

Passing through the Central Link project is definitely an improvement, but that only lasts until you get to the Mriehel bypass, which has been bottlenecked to one lane for months now.

The situation at Ghadira is also dire. After months of works, both lanes have now been opened, but the on-street parking means that the two lanes are barely wide enough for two cars to pass by each other, and this causes traffic jams.

Traffic stalls every day, at every hour, at St Andrew’s too, where plans for a total upheaval of the traffic network there were submitted three years ago but have so far not materialised.

It is clear that the government tried to bite off more than it can chew with this massive project. It is obvious that there are not enough resources to go around. Constrution resources were already stretched before the project was launched, due to the infinite number of building sites in Malta and Gozo. Now, these have to be shared with the government entity behind these road works.  

This is also a case of bad planning. Whereas in many parts of the world, major projects are completed in days, ours take years. And many times, major roadworks in touristic areas or on roads leading to popular locations such as beaches are launched weeks before the start of summer.

It is hard to understand why Muscat’s Labour decided on doing all this in seven years. It would have been much wiser to not give a timeframe and to simply pledge that timely and efficient road works would be carried out as required, like they do in normal countries.