‘Some congestion’ still expected in €32 million Regional Road tunnel proposed by Mott MacDonald

The proposed Regional Road tunnel will not entirely solve traffic problems, especially during the peak afternoon rush hour, when congestion is still foreseen clogging up Maltese roads, a report presented by consultants Mott Macdonald on Paceville states.

The report, which forms part of the appendices to the proposed Paceville masterplan, shows that the construction of a 732-metre long tunnel which will cost €32 million, is the best option to address the increase in traffic created by the new high-rise developments that some of Malta’s richest property magnates are clamouring for.

According to the report, forecasts for 2025 indicate that while traffic on the surface level will be acceptable at all times, the afternoon rush-hour will “likely” see “some congestion in the tunnel at the point where the tunnel meets the surface level”.

Studies show that new development in Paceville is expected to generate an extra 1,757 car trips in the afternoon rush hour. But the report also shows that even in the absence of new development the existing Regional Road is not coping with traffic flows.

The main benefit of the tunnel is that it frees up capacity at the surface level for local traffic directed towards Paceville. This capacity can therefore be used by the additional development in Paceville. 

Based on information from Transport Malta it is understood that 60% of present traffic on the road doesn’t stop in Paceville or its environs, while 40% is local traffic directed to Paceville, Pembroke, Swieqi and northern Sliema.  

Therefore studies have been based on the assumption that 60% of traffic will be directed to the tunnel and 40% to the surface road. In this way local traffic will no longer interact with regional traffic. 

The studies exclude the development of a tunnel inside Paceville complementing the Regional Road tunnel.

The problem with having two tunnels was that this might result in a situation where more local traffic will be using the Regional Road tunnel to access or exit the Paceville tunnel, instead of using the surface level. In this way at the tunnel level the traffic volumes will be too high to be accommodated in the tunnel. 

The Regional Road tunnel is planned with one lane in each direction, which will complement the surface level road, which will also have one lane in each direction. The combination of tunnel and street level road has been given a total capacity of 2,400 vehicles per direction per hour, reflecting that it will not have as much capacity as a standard two-lane in each direction road.