2500 tests a year to ensure quality infrastructure

• 29 Sep, 2021 |

Infrastructure Malta conducts over 2,500 technical tests a year to ensure the quality of its new road and maritime infrastructure.

This ongoing quality assurance effort is necessary to guarantee the best possible returns on the €400 million plus infrastructural investment the agency implemented since it was established in 2018.

Through a collaboration with the Institute of Standards and Metrology of the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA), and other local laboratories, Infrastructure Malta coordinates a rigorous testing programme to make sure that works carried out by its contractors meet the required technical specifications. The agency’s quality assurance team commissions over 2,500 tests every year, more than six a day, ranging from concrete and asphalt strength to skid resistance and traffic sign retroreflectivity (night visibility). 

The agency orders some of these tests during the construction phases of its projects so that when shortcomings are identified, it can order remedial action immediately. Other tests, such as the surface regularity and compaction density of new roads, can only be conducted when works are ready. If these tests fail, Infrastructure Malta can ask contractors to redo the works at their own expense. If the defects identified do not impact the safety and durability of the infrastructure, it can also impose price reductions, so that contractors are only paid for the material specifications provided.

An average of 25% of tests carried out by the agency lead to remedial works or price reductions. In 2020, the agency enforced circa €1.3 million in price reductions for works that did not reach the required standards.

Three years ago Infrastructure Malta embarked on an upgrade of the national specifications and other technical benchmarks regulating the quality of infrastructural works carried out by road contractors and other public and private entities, so that they are brought in line with the latest European standards and international best practices. In 2020, Infrastructure Malta continued this process with the upgrading of 15 national specifications, including important performance criteria for structural concrete and structural steelwork.

As new specifications are adopted, Infrastructure Malta is also introducing better quality materials and construction methods, as well as improved testing methods. For the first time in Malta, in most arterial road upgrades in 2020 and this year, contractors used polymer modified asphalt, a stronger material that is more durable and resistant to high ambient temperatures. The agency also established the use of long-life thermoplastic road markings and concrete crash barriers as standard features in the Maltese road network.

Infrastructure Malta is supporting MCCAA to acquire and adopt new testing methods and equipment, such as non-destructive technologies to rapidly measure asphalt strength, reducing the quantity of core samples that are normally extracted from completed road surfaces. These improvements continue to increase the efficiency of testing processes, facilitating quicker and more accurate reporting and swifter implementation of remedial works and other related actions.

The agency is also guiding local contractors to attain the elevated quality benchmarks that the new technical standards call for. Several asphalt plants that provide road paving services have already attained new accreditations attesting their conformity to improved production control standards and processes as required by the EU Construction Product Regulations (CPR).

Extending shore-to-ship electricity to Palumbo shipyards

• 03 Jun, 2021 |

Infrastructure Malta is re-routing a section of the new high-voltage underground cable network that will introduce shoreside electricity in the Grand Harbour, so that it can eventually extend this green technology to the Palumbo Shipyards as well. 

The agency has taken note of the appeals of Cottonera residents to equip the shipyards in Cospicua with shore-to-ship power and has modified this project to make sure that the new electricity network for this system can also cater for this ship repair facility’s largest dry dock, Dock 6, and Parlatorio Wharf next to it. This extension will continue to augment this investment’s environmental benefits in Cospicua and other localities in the Grand Harbour. 

The Grand Harbour Clean Air Project (#GHCAP) includes the development of the electricity infrastructure for cruise liners and Ro-Ro cargo ships to switch off their gasoil- or heavy-fuel-oil-fired engines and plug in to shoreside electricity to power their onboard systems, whilst they are berthed at port. Through this €49.9 million investment, Infrastructure Malta is improving air quality for 17,000 families living in the Grand Harbour area by reducing more than 90% of the air pollution emitted by these vessels.

The laying of the underground electricity network that will distribute electricity to the Grand Harbour’s principal quays is advancing rapidly. Infrastructure Malta completed 36% of this network infrastructure.

Works on this project started late last year, soon after the European Commission included the GHCAP in a list of 140 transport infrastructure projects across Europe that will be co-financed through Connecting Europe Facility, the European Union's scheme for sustainable transport infrastructure.

The project contractors are excavating trenches in several locations along the Grand Harbour  shoreline to lay the underground electricity cables that will distribute electricity from an existing Enemalta plc primary substation (distribution centre) in Jesuits Hill, Marsa to the Grand Harbour’s cruise liner quays in Floriana, Marsa and Senglea. 
 
The first branch of this network is ready. It connects the existing Enemalta substation with the Deep Water Quay, where Infrastructure Malta is preparing to build one of the project’s two frequency converter stations. The project contractors are also constructing underground ducts for the 11-kilovolt cables which will distribute power from this station to the quays and the shore-to-ship connection points at Pinto Wharf, along the Valletta side of the Grand Harbour. 

The second stretch of cables is directed towards Bridge Wharf and Church Wharf in Marsa. From here, submarine cables will extend the network to Coal Wharf in Corradino, Paola and to Boiler Wharf, in Senglea, on the other side of the Harbour. This branch of the network is now also incorporating the Palumbo Shipyards, where cable laying works are in progress this week.

Infrastructure Malta is spearheading discussions between the port authorities, the utilities involved and other stakeholders with a view to incorporating the installation of shore-to-ship connections at the Cospicua shipyards in the second phase of this project, which will introduce shoreside electricity to Laboratory Wharf and to Ras Hanzir (Fuel Wharf), in Paola, as well. At Ras Hanzir, Infrastructure Malta will be building a new 360-metre cargo handling facility in the coming years. These two locations will provide shoreside electricity to Ro-Ro ships as well.

Preliminary studies indicate that through the GHCAP, within 20 years Malta will save up to €375 million in costs linked to the measurable consequences of air pollution, such as impacts on health, the natural environment, infrastructure and agriculture. It will also reduce the impact of cruise liner noise and engine vibrations in the Grand Harbour area. These health and environmental benefits will make this project the second-largest contribution to improved air quality in Malta, following the decommissioning of heavy fuel oil power stations in Marsa and Marsaxlokk in 2017.

Through the first phase of this project, Infrastructure Malta will drastically reduce the emissions of cruise ships visiting Malta. By switching off their auxiliary engines, cruise liners will emit 93% less nitrogen oxides, 92.6% less particulate matter and 99.6% less sulphur dioxide. These pollutants are among the principal causes of respiratory illnesses and other health problems. The first phase of the GHCAP will also cut 39.6% of the cruise liners’ carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to the climate emergency.

The European Union’s 2014 directive on the deployment of alternative fuels (2014/ 94/EU) stipulates that member states should prioritise the introduction of shore-side electricity supply in ports of the TEN-T Core Network, such as the Grand Harbour, by end 2025. Infrastructure Malta is planning to complete the first phase of the GHCAP by 2023.

First solar footpath in Malta

• 13 May, 2021 |

Infrastructure Malta is installing Malta’s first solar footpath along part of Rabat’s new Gheriexem Road promenade, in a pilot project set to power 40% of this road’s lighting with renewable energy.  

The €70,000 pilot project is utilising an innovative solar pavements technology that is being introduced in several other countries. It is the first step towards the development of more photovoltaic footpaths and cycle lanes in the future. Infrastructure Malta will monitor data from this project to determine the sustainability of installing similar systems in other footpaths, cycle lanes and public open spaces. Such photovoltaic systems can feed renewable energy into the national grid. They can also be connected to batteries to directly energise off-grid street lighting, pedestrian crossings, charging points for electric cars and e-bikes, USB charging points, security cameras, Wi-Fi hotspots, and other road technologies.

The 40-square-metre solar footpath of the Gheriexem promenade will include 36 photovoltaic panels that can generate more than 4,600 kWh of electricity every year, saving 21 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. The grid-connected system will provide enough electricity to power 40% of Gheriexem Road’s lighting, including the decorative lights that will illuminate the promenade’s footpaths.  

Infrastructure Malta is adopting an innovative system of photovoltaic panels comprising very thin (few millimetres) photovoltaic cells that are embedded in the footpath and covered with a layer of transparent heavy-duty resins and polymers that can withstand pedestrian, cycling and light vehicle traffic, whilst providing the same level of skid-resistance as any other concrete or paved surface.

A digital display next to the solar footpath will give the public live updates of daily generation figures and corresponding carbon dioxide emission savings. Infrastructure Malta is planning to complete this pilot project later this year, in parallel with the ongoing €4 million project to rebuild the Gheriexem Road with a new promenade for safer pedestrian connections between Rabat and Mtarfa.  

Launched last summer, the Gheriexem Belvedere Project includes the reconstruction of the scenic Gheriexem Road on stronger foundations, to stop decades of subsidence damage to its structure and to nearby buildings. The new promenade along this road will include footpaths, benches overlooking the Gheriexem Valley and landscaped areas with new trees and shrubs.

For many years, residents in this area have been calling on the authorities to stop the gradual sinking of this road along the side of Gheriexem Valley, which is causing extensive damages to their residences, some of which are in danger of collapsing.

During the last few months, the project contractors completed most of the new retaining structure of this 800-metre road. To build the new footings of the road and the promenade, Infrastructure Malta embedded over 100 steel-reinforced concrete piles 15 metres (5 storeys) into the ground and bridged them together with a long concrete capping beam. On top of this platform, workers placed some 6,000 large limestone blocks and poured tonnes of concrete to form a thick retaining wall abutting the weak rubble wall built on clay which supported the existing road until it started to give way in recent years.

Workers are now drilling cores for another row of 270 piles along the other side of the road, which is lined with residences and other buildings. These piles will continue to stabilise the road structure and nearby buildings, whilst enabling Infrastructure Malta to safely dig trenches to lay new underground networks providing water, sewage and telecommunication services in the same area.     

The plans of this project were prepared by the Ministry for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects’ Works and Infrastructure Department, in consultation with the environmental and archaeological authorities to minimise adverse impacts on adjacent fields and to conserve the area’s archaeology. 
 

Infrastructure Malta planting 9908 trees in three months

• 23 Mar, 2021 |

Infrastructure Malta is planting 9,908 new trees in different localities in Malta during the first three months of 2021. 

The agency has already reached 88% of the total of 11,213 trees it planted in 93 different locations in 2020. During the first three months of this year it is planting circa 110 trees a day, almost four times more than the average of 30 trees a day in 2020.

Since it started its nationwide tree-planting programme in summer 2019, Infrastructure Malta added 29,840 trees and 19,654 shrubs in Malta. This effort will continue in coming months with many other urban and rural locations earmarked for the planting of thousands of new trees and shrubs.   

Infrastructure Malta confirmed these figures during a visit to the Tas-Salib area of Rabat, where this week it is planting over 220 tall cypress trees along the sides of a rural road between Rabat and Bingemma, in Mgarr. The cypress trees, each over two metres high, will be embellishing this picturesque rural area next to the 16th century chapel dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, popularly known as Tas-Salib Chapel. To improve the growing conditions of these trees, Infrastructure Malta is adding a strip of soil along the sides of the road. In parts of the road it will also be laying a low kerb to separate and protect the new trees from passing vehicles.

This month, the agency is also concluding the landscaping and tree planting works of the new green areas around the Marsa Junction Project flyovers, in Marsa and Paola. Infrastructure Malta is planting 7,770 trees in this area, including Aleppo pines, holm oaks, lentisks, cypresses, olive trees, judas trees and carob trees. Around them, it is also adding 10,495 shrubs and hedges, such as rosemary, oleander and olive-leaved germander. 

Under the guidance of arborists and other environmental experts and authorities, the agency’s contractors will continue watering and taking care of these trees for several years, until they confirm that they are established in their new environment. If any of the trees are damaged or stolen, or if they do not survive, Infrastructure Malta will replace them. In fact, since 2020 it replaced 1,041 trees that were stolen from 14 different locations soon after they were planted. 

Through the Marsa Junction Project, the agency’s contractors installed circa two kilometres of underground irrigation pipes and built three new large underground rainwater reservoirs to water the new trees and shrubs. Infrastructure Malta is building similar reservoirs and irrigation networks in Attard, Balzan, Birkirkara and Mriehel, where many more new trees are being planted as part of the Central Link Project. 
 

Lifting new footbridge over Tigrija Road, Marsa

• 10 Feb, 2021 |

On Tuesday night, Infrastructure Malta lifted in place the first of two interconnected footbridges that will form a 53-metre segregated pedestrian and cycling crossing over It-Tigrija Road, Marsa.   

The agency’s contractors used two cranes to raise the 30-metre, 40-tonne tied-arch steel superstructure to its final position against two abutment towers situated on the sides of the four-lane arterial road connecting Dicembru Tlettax (December 13th) Road with the Marsa-Hamrun Bypass, in Santa Venera.

This €1.4 million investment will create a safer walking and cycling route between different residential areas of Marsa and the centre of Qormi (through Il-Gerrejja Alley). It will remove a critical safety risk along a very popular pedestrian route from the centre of Marsa (Il-Jum Street and Il-Marsa Street areas) towards several locations of Marsa and Qormi on the other side of It-Tigrija Road, including the Marsa Park and Ride bus terminus (L-Iljun Road, Qormi), the Marsa Sports Grounds and several other nearby industrial, retail and residential areas. 

To reach these destinations, many pedestrians currently cross the five lanes of It-Tigrija Road and its slip roads, which do not currently have any form of safe crossing. Pedestrians need to go over steel crash barriers and cross a high-speed section of the road, as vehicles go up the ramp from Dicembru Tlettax Road’s northbound carriageway to get to Qormi and to the Marsa-Hamrun Bypass.

The agency launched the first phase of this project, including the construction of the two towers supporting the steel footbridge over It-Tigrija Road, three months ago. The second phase, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, includes the construction of a second bridge to replace an existing zebra crossing at the one-lane off-slip connecting It-Tigrija Road’s southbound carriageway with Dicembru 13 Road, towards Valletta. This 23-metre structure will connect Il-Jum Street, Marsa with the deck of the steel bridge lifted in place on Tuesday night. The two bridges will include stairways and spacious elevators to be comfortable and accessible to all.  

In 2020, Infrastructure Malta invested €5.9 million to build three new bridges for cyclists and pedestrians at Blata l-Bajda (San Gorg Preca Road), Luqa (L-Avjazzjoni Avenue) and Paola (Dom Mintoff Road). It is currently completing the finishing works of another two footbridges and an underpass for pedestrians and cyclists, as part of the Marsa Junction Project. A few weeks ago, the agency also opened a new subway beneath Tal-Barrani Road, creating a safer link between Santa Lucija and Tarxien. It is currently planning similar projects for safer connections for alternative modes of travel in Floriana, Msida and Mriehel.  

This multi-million investment is contributing to improved pedestrian, public transport and cycling access between different localities and areas around the new bridges and subways, providing increased levels of safety and an enhanced commute experience in busy arterial roads, with segregated pathways replacing other forms of crossings at grade.

Rebuilding 102 rural roads in 2020

• 20 Jan, 2021 |

Infrastructure Malta invested over €15 million in the reconstruction and upgrading of 102 countryside roads in 2020. 

The Government of Malta financed €12 million of this infrastructural investment, whilst Infrastructure Malta sourced another €3 million from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development of the European Union, which has contributed a total of €9.9 million to the agency’s rural roads development since it was established in 2018.

In 2020, Infrastructure Malta rebuilt and improved circa 60 kilometres of roads in the Maltese countryside, twice the length of Malta, from Cirkewwa to Birzebbuga. Beneath these roads, the agency laid some 40 kilometres of pipelines and cables to improve the quality of service of several utilities and telecommunication services in surrounding areas. 

Many of the rebuilt streets had been in a state of neglect for decades. Whilst in the past they were mostly used by farmers to access nearby fields, nowadays they are also very popular for leisure walking, running and cycling. Some road users also choose these country roads as a quieter alternative to the residential and arterial road network, to get from one locality to another using different modes of travel. Some of the surfaces of these roads had not been built with adequate foundations for the heavy machinery used in agriculture today, and for other similar vehicles. Infrastructure Malta is rebuilding them with stronger foundations using longer-lasting materials.

As per standard procedure in all major road works, Infrastructure Malta consults the utilities and telecommunication service providers to include the reinforcement of any underground networks, such as water pipelines and telecommunication cable ducts, as part of the rural roads’ rebuilding plans. This will reduce the risk of having to dig up the roads again for underground network repairs soon after they are resurfaced. In many rural roads, Infrastructure Malta is also laying new pipelines for reclaimed water (new water), which many farmers started using for irrigation in recent years.

Since 2019, Infrastructure Malta has carried out rebuilding or other upgrade works in more than 230 rural roads in more than 30 different localities. This investment in improved infrastructure for the agricultural sector will continue in 2021 and beyond, with the reconstruction of more roads and other similar works. 

Introducing the first outdoor art gallery in Malta

• 23 Dec, 2020 |

Infrastructure Malta teamed up with the MCAST Institute for the Creative Arts to introduce Malta’s first outdoor art gallery, an alternative exhibition space amidst the new green walls of the Marsa-Hamrun Bypass.

This new art space is set up in a long lay-by halfway along the 350-metre vertical garden covering the high retaining walls of the southbound carriageway of this busy seven-lane road between Santa Venera, Qormi and Marsa. Infrastructure Malta completed the installation of the green wall earlier this month, through a separate collaboration with Ambjent Malta. 

The new outdoor art gallery features ten large square frames where students and lecturers from the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST)’s Institute for the Creative Arts will be exhibiting prints of their works. Eventually, Infrastructure Malta and the Institute will also open this outdoor art display to other local and international artists as well.

The first collection of works in this gallery was created by Carmen Aquilina, Pierre Mifsud and Darren Tanti, the three art lecturers who developed this new public art concept with Infrastructure Malta. Drawing upon the adjacent green wall, the longest of its kind in Malta, the artists were inspired by this effort to bring nature back to invigorate the urban environment in which we live, work and travel. The artists use a combination of photography, painting, digital manipulation and other media to celebrate local endemic flower species, such as the Maltese rock-centaury (widnet il-bahar) and the Maltese spider orchid (brimba sewda).

Ing. Fredrick Azzopardi, Infrastructure Malta’s Chief Executive Officer said that the agency will continue sponsoring the Institute for the Creative Arts’ students and lecturers to exhibit new art prints every few months. “We want to keep this space alive with a variety of visuals and ideas for many years to come, bringing the creativity of different artists closer to the thousands of commuters who travel through this principal south-central route every day. We also hope that this concept can be adopted in other public spaces as well, as part of our long-term commitment to the development of more sustainable infrastructure in the Maltese Islands.

Prof. Joachim James Calleja, Principal and Chief Executive Officer of MCAST, welcomed Infrastructure Malta’s interest in supporting the creative output of its Institute for the Creative Arts. In fact, MCAST is very keen to see this collaboration develop further, especially with the continued involvement of its learners since it gives them the opportunity to work on real life projects beyond the experiences of the College. While this phase of the project saw learners work as part of the creative team, especially on aspects of documentation and presentation, the creative process that they witnessed is to serve as an inspiration for future reinterpretations of the project.
 

Infrastructure Malta completes Saluting Battery paving restoration

• 18 Dec, 2020 |

Infrastructure Malta laid new paving slabs at the Saluting Battery of the Upper Barrakka Gardens, in Valletta, reinstating it to the way it looked when the Knights of St John built it in the 16th century.  

This €100,000 intervention is replacing a green lawn which was installed in the middle of this panoramic platform over 10 years ago. Water from the lawn’s irrigation was seeping into the bastions beneath and flooding the underlying Lascaris War Rooms, one of the most important sites of Malta’s World War II history, causing extensive damages to its structure and military relics. Infrastructure Malta laid the new limestone paving as part of an ongoing collaboration with Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna, the heritage trust entrusted with the management of the Saluting Battery and Lascaris War Rooms.

The Saluting Battery is one of the most popular historical sites in the Maltese Islands. Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna’s daily re-enactment of the traditional firing of the noon day gun is followed by 700,000 visitors every year. Until the 1950s, the Saluting Battery’s cannons on top of the Valletta bastions were primarily used for ceremonial purposes, but were also fired three times a day, to signal time to ships anchored in the harbour and to the people living and working in surrounding localities. The Battery was also used for military defence during the French Blockade of 1798 and in World War II, when it was equipped with an anti-aircraft gun. 

Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna designed the new paving of the Saluting Battery in the same style of flooring in other fortifications of the Knights of St John and of the British Period. The flagstones were cut and laid to form a concentric pattern converging towards two central points in the middle of the platform. As part of the rehabilitation of the Battery, Infrastructure Malta also cleaned and pointed older paving that surrounded the two lawns, to match the new slabs. Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna will now embellish the area with potted trees and plants that do not risk causing further water damage to the bastions and the war rooms beneath. 

In another similar collaboration, last year Infrastructure Malta planted over 1,100 trees in the vast grounds of Fort Rinella, in Kalkara, another historical site under the care of Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna. These trees will eventually form part of a family eco park. The two organisations are planning several other joint projects to continue preserving Malta’s cultural heritage in the coming years.

More information: www.wirtartna.org

27,600 plants for longest green wall in Malta

• 23 Nov, 2020 |

Infrastructure Malta is using 27,600 flowering plants to give life to the longest green wall in Malta, as this €500,000 environmental investment at the Marsa-Hamrun Bypass nears its final stages.

The new vertical garden is covering a 350-metre concrete retaining wall, longer than the length of three football grounds, at the side of the southbound carriageway of the Bypass, in Santa Venera. Within the next few weeks, thousands of road users travelling to southern Malta will be able to appreciate this new urban greening experience during their daily commutes. Infrastructure Malta launched this project in collaboration with Ambjent Malta earlier this year. Weather permitting, all works will be ready next month.

The project contractors started installing the specialised structure of this green wall last summer. It was manufactured using eco-friendly, recyclable materials and specifically designed to reduce the risk of damage to the concrete retaining wall behind it. The system also incorporates an automatic drip irrigation system connected to a reservoir which Infrastructure Malta built in the grounds of an adjacent school when the Marsa-Hamrun Bypass was rebuilt in 2018. The contractors also installed security cameras to deter theft and vandalism. 

This week, workers started the final phase of the project, placing the first 14,300 of the 27,600 plants that will be growing on this wall. They are using several species of plants to create a pre-defined design with the different colours and textures of their leaves and flowers.

As part of the same project, the contractors will continue taking care of this wall for several years. Infrastructure Malta and Ambjent Malta will be studying the development of this vertical garden to assess the feasibility of introducing this kind of green infrastructure in other public spaces as well.   

In the meantime, Infrastructure Malta is also working with the Institute for the Creative Arts of the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) to set up an outdoor art gallery in another section of the same wall at the Marsa-Hamrun Bypass. A new concept for public infrastructure in Malta, this outdoor gallery will include large-scale prints of artworks by the Institute’s fine arts students and lecturers. New artworks will be exhibited in this gallery’s fixed frames every few months. Eventually, this space will also be made available to other local and international artists, bringing fine art closer to the people as they go past them every day. The first new artworks will be in place next month.

First Marsa Junction Project footbridge taking shape

• 16 Oct, 2020 |

Infrastructure Malta lifted in place the first steel superstructure span of the new Aldo Moro Road footbridge in Marsa.

On Thursday night, the Marsa Junction Project contractors closed this critical 10-lane road to safely set the first half of this 70-tonne two-span, tied-arch bridge in position against one of its two abutment towers and an intermediate supporting pier. The 59-metre overpass will create a quicker and safer connection for pedestrians, bus passengers and cyclists travelling between the Addolorata Cemetery, the Marsa Industrial Estate and the Marsa Sports Grounds areas on one side of the road, and the Albert Town and Is-Salib tal-Marsa areas on the other. It will also link the project’s new park and ride areas with nearby bus stops, along the main public transport route to many localities in southern Malta. 

The bridge forms part of a network of footpaths, bus lanes, safe bus lay-bys, cycle lanes and park and ride facilities that Infrastructure Malta is developing around the seven new flyover structures of this €70 million project, to facilitate safer connections for alternative modes of travel between Tarxien, Paola, Santa Lucija, Marsa, Luqa, Qormi and other nearby areas.

Another 32-metre bridge over Sir Paul Boffa Avenue, between Paola and Marsa, is under construction as well. The project contractors fabricated the steel superstructures of these two pedestrian bridges in Turkey last summer, before shipping them to the Grand Harbour, a few hundred metres away from the project site. At the same time, other workers built the four towers that will house the stairs and elevators to the bridge decks. The longer Aldo Moro Road bridge also requires a central concrete pier located between the road’s two carriageways.  

A few days ago, the project contractor started assembling the first of the two superstructures of the Aldo Moro Road bridge on the ground, in preparation for Thursday night’s lifting operation. The two tied-arch spans of this footbridge are 27 metres and 32 metres long. They are made of over 140 steel components, held together by some 900 steel bolts. 

In the meantime, final preparations for the opening of another three of this project’s new flyover structures are nearing completion. The new flyover structures include uninterrupted, southbound connections from Aldo Moro Road, Marsa, to Giuseppe Garibaldi Road, Luqa, and to Santa Lucija Avenue, towards Santa Lucija and Tal-Barrani Road, Tarxien. The three flyover structures completed last year, which are temporarily being used in contraflow in the same direction as the three new ones, will subsequently be closed for a few weeks for final works so that they can be reopened in the northbound direction.

In the coming weeks, Infrastructure Malta will also open the seventh flyover structure, which was completed last month. It will link the northbound carriageway of Santa Lucija Avenue, currently closed, to the Addolorata Cemetery, to the new park and ride areas, and to Il-Gvern Lokali Road, towards Qormi (Turkish Cemetery area). 

Santa Lucija Avenue was closed earlier this year due to the construction of the new Santa Lucija Roundabout Underpass, along the same route, one kilometre away from the Marsa Junction Project site. Infrastructure Malta rebuilt this road and reopened its southbound carriageway last month. The northbound carriageway will be reopened in the coming weeks, along with the new underpass connecting it to Tal-Barrani Road.

 
Around this new infrastructure, Infrastructure Malta is forming new landscaped areas with many new trees and four monumental public art installations. It is building two underground reservoirs to harvest 1.5 million litres of rainwater for the irrigation of these new green areas. The project contractors are also laying over 13 kilometres of underground networks, including water mains, sewers, walk-through culverts for electricity cables, Internet and other telecommunication cable ducts and stormwater pipelines.

The Marsa Junction Project is co-financed through the European Union’s Cohesion Fund and the Connecting Europe Facility. It includes the development of a new multi-level intersection to replace the old Addolorata traffic lights system with 12 kilometres of uninterrupted lanes, grade-separated at three levels, creating direct northbound and southbound connections between the arterial roads merging at this network node. It is ending traffic lights waiting times along this principal route to southern Malta, whilst reducing congestion emissions in Marsa and other nearby localities.