Stuck in traffic this morning? Roadworks in St Julian's and Eid celebrations in Paola are to blame

The usual rush hour traffic was amplified on Wednesday morning due to prolonged road works in St Julian's and Muslim Eid al-Fitr celebrations at the Paola mosque.

Traffic at Regional Road towards Paceville was at a standstill, with the tailback extending beyond the Santa Venera tunnels and almost reaching the Marsa/Ħamrun bypass towards St Julian’s.

The traffic appeared to have resulted from a road closure in Triq Mikiel Anton Vassalli. On 3 April, Infrastructure Malta had warned that it will be carrying out maintenance works on small parts of the northbound and southbound carriageway of Triq Mikiel Anton Vassalli in Swieqi.

In an update on Wednesday morning, Infrastructure Malta clarified that the delayed reopening of routes was due to technical complications during the roadworks.

"After a thorough inspection and verification by Infrastructure Malta's professionals, the stretch of road in question was reopened for vehicular traffic few hours later than planned which led to this morning's traffic," the organisation said.

Meanwhile, in the Corradino area, traffic was slow due to an event organised by the Muslim community at the local mosque, in celebration of Eid al-Fitr. The tailback reached Bormla as part of the northbound lane along the MCAST campus was blocked off to traffic.

In a Facebook post, Transport Minister Chris Bonett said the roadworks in St Julian's had to finish by 5:30am but complications that arose meant the two lanes reopened for traffic three hours later.

Bonett said the Eid al-Fitr celebrations meant that the Paola mosque experienced an influx of people. He said although Transport Malta officials were on site to try and mitigate the congestion caused they do not have the authority to physically remove people from roads. The police force was asked to help out but clearing the lanes from celebrants took its time.

The minister apologised to motorists. "Unfortunately incidents like today happen although we are doing our utmost for these to become rare," he said.

PN: "11 years and €700 million later, traffic is worse than ever"

Reacting to the news, the Nationalist Party stated that it would ensure effective traffic management by refraining from closing multiple roads simultaneously, while incentivising the use of alternative transport.