Gharghur traffic could gridlock in 2020

Two members on MEPA board voted against McDonald’s drive-thru in Gharghur over traffic concerns related to faulty roundabout

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority were alerted to studies warning of gridlock on Tal-Balal road in Gharghur by 2020, before approving a new McDonald’s drive-thru just by a busy roundabout on the same road.

Official minutes of a MEPA board meeting held in August 2013, during which the new, tenth McDonald’s restaurant and 24-hour drive-thru was approved by nine votes to two, show that studies were presented warning of the impending traffic problems in the area.

NGOs’ representative Alex Vella, of the Ramblers Association, and the former MEPA deputy chairperson Sandro Magro, an architect, were the only board members who voted against the restaurant’s application, after expressing concerns on the traffic impact and questioning the procedure used to approve the application.

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In his presentation, traffic impact study author Dr Paul Gauci explained that as at 2015 traffic volumes were projected to be “borderline on the high side”, while in 2020 “queuing” was to be expected.

But according to Gauci, this situation was the result of the faulty design of the roundabout just outside the McDonald’s drive-thru and its adjacent petrol pump station.

In fact, the impact on the road network was found to be “within limits” if the roundabout was upgraded. “Since the faulty design of the roundabout was Transport Malta’s responsibility, it has accepted responsibility to upgrade the junction,” the report stated.
Although the McDonald’s restaurant was approved last year, Transport Malta is yet to upgrade the junction.

Replying to MaltaToday’s questions, Transport Malta CEO James Piscopo reiterated TM’s commitment to undertake the necessary junction upgrade works.

“These junction upgrade works will be carried out in accordance with national road infrastructure upgrade priorities.”

During the MEPA board meeting that approved the restaurant, environmentalist Alex Vella had observed that any regular motorist on Tal-Balal road was aware that congestion due to the existing petrol station and car wash was proving to be “impossible”, noting that in the peak hours the entire length of the road from San Gwann to Naxxar is blocked by slow traffic.

On his part, Sandro Magro said the drive-thru could create queuing that trails up to the main road.

In reply, Traffic Impact Study consultant Dr Paul Gauci said the restaurant could handle 15 cars per hour. At this point, MEPA chairman Vince Cassar asked what would happen if the drive-thru area happened to be full and whether cars would end up queuing in the main road.

Gauci replied that such an eventuality was not anticipated, and that the projected volumes anticipated to make use of the facility were less than the ones for the Gudja site (Malta Airport), since other McDonalds exist in the area unlike in the south of Malta.

Magro expressed concern as to whether there was adequate space for waiting on the ghost island, to which the developers’ architect replied that at MIA, McDonald’s services one car per minute.

Vella and Magro also disagreed with MEPA’s advice that the drive-thru would not result in any “intensification of development”. MEPA’s legal department said that the restaurant operators did not need a planning control application, because the development would not result in an increase in “volume or density of permitted structure on site”.

But the two objectors claimed that since the site in question was included in the 2006 rationalisation – which increased development areas – the new restaurant should have submitted a planning control application.