Anger over Mqabba road that keeps collapsing despite repeated attempts to fix it

Every few years an important link road in Mqabba collapses and locals are furious because no one is taking responsibility for the lack of proper repairs.

Triq is-Sejba, which links Mqabba with the Ta’ Kandja area in the limits of Siġġiewi was blocked off this week by Infrastructure Malta after the road surface started giving way. The agency said it will be studying the situation and carrying out emergency works in the coming weeks.

But for locals who spoke to MaltaToday, the situation is not new. Two people who live in the vicinity said this is at least the fifth time in nearly 30 years that the road has deteriorated rapidly.

“People always mention the collapse of Mqabba school football ground (which happened in 2010), but they forget this road collapsed before that incident and even after it,” an irate resident said.

He recalled how the identical section of road that is showing signs of subsidence and cracking now, collapsed some 30 years ago.

“Only the original section of the road is built on solid rock. The part that was added on when it was widened is not,” a farmer with fields in the area pointed out.

The road is surrounded on either side by quarries, some of which are inactive. The road is also used by heavy vehicles to bypass Mqabba’s village core.

'The car dips and then goes up'

A woman told MaltaToday that the road was last reconstructed in 2021, however, around three years earlier it also had work done on it. “It’s always because of the same spot,” she said.

A visual inspection of the road surface shows how a section of the road dips, while a nearby wall delineating the perimeter of a quarry has fissures on the bottom courses, an indication that its foundations are giving way.

Asked if they have ever felt any movement themselves while driving or walking on the road, the people who spoke to us said the road felt “warped” underneath the tyres of their vehicles.

A retaining wall alongside part of the road is showing signs of detachment in the lower courses (Photo: Marianna Calleja/MaltaToday)

“I pass frequently, but drive very slowly,” a resident said. “When you drive straight towards Mqabba, the car dips and then goes up again.”

The woman also confirmed this and added that once you try to avoid the problemetic area by overtaking it, you can still feel the car sinking to the left.

“When a water bowser comes, you could see them lose control as the water shifts to one side of the vehicle,” a farmer said.

Another person who works in the area expressed concerns for drivers who speed through the road not knowing about the dip. The elderly man warned that a grievious accident could occur, especially during the holidays when people can have a drink or two in their heads.

“Three years ago, I spoke to an architect who was on site. I had noticed that the road expansion was not being rebuilt from its foundations up. Nor were they using steel mesh as you would when pouring concrete as one would do while building a house's roof,” he added.

The problem is being buried under tarmac until another person has to confront it again

Everyone MaltaToday spoke to had their own views about what was causing this recurring problem, but all theories pointed to the reclaimed section of the quarry beneath the section of the road that was widened.
The women blamed the heavy vehicles that routinely pass through the area to reach the quarries but the men blamed the authorities.

“This road has been done three or four times in my lifetime. It keeps collapsing and no one is taking responsibility for the money and resources that are being squandered because work is not being done well,” a clearly disappointed elderly man interjected. “The problem is being buried under tarmac until another person has to confront it again.”

What is happening now

IM will be monitoring the deterioration and movement closely over the next few days, according to agency CEO Ivan Falzon.

In comments to MaltaToday when IM informed the public that the road was being closed off, Falzon had said the entire route will be refurbished in the following weeks.

The road section that has been closed off by Infrastructure Malta

Meanwhile, vehicular access in the area from the corner of Triq il-Parroċċa to corner of Triq il-Madonna tal-Ġilju was restricted with immediate effect.

The road could take up to two months to be finished as it needs to be completely rebuilt from scratch, the agency has said.

A history of failure to rebuild well

Former Mqabba Mayor Nicholas Briffa, in a newspaper letter published in 2007, had explained that two years prior the local council undertook works to address the road's deterioration. An abutment wall had been built and the road widened.

He explained that the 2005 works were undertaken by the council in partnership with private contractors who contributed a sum of around Lm35,000 in material and services for the project.

But just two years later the road was redone again by the central government. Former roads minister Jesmond Mugliett had even visited the works where government spent Lm32,000 on emergency works.

At the time the Nationalist government was resurfacing a number of arterial roads thanks to EU funding, as well as funding from the Italian government. Triq is-Sejba was not included in the 2006-2008 residential roads programme but had to be done because the foundations were giving way.

The road was widened again and the foundations were supposed to have been strengthened. Work on the sewage system was also carried out before a new layer of tarmac was laid.

In 2020, remedial works were done to fix parts of Triq is-Sejba that had subsisted and a year later the whole road was redone by Infrastructure Malta

However, 10 years later, former infrastructure minister Ian Borg announced works on roads that required “immediate attention” and included in the list was Triq is-Sejba once again.

In 2020, former Mqabba Mayor Omar Farrugia, now an MP, posted photos of a section of the road that was collapsing. Remedial works were carried out and in 2021, the whole road was redone. The mayor boasted on his social media about the completion of the reconstruction of Triq Is-Sejba, sharing photos of the road after asphalt was laid down.

Now, just a year later, the road has met the same fate as that of previous years and requires emergency works once again.

Surrounded by quarries

Mqabba is surrounded by quarries, and Triq is-Sejba is not the first problematic area in the village.

Just over two decades ago in a different part of Mqabba, a 12-storey quarry side collapsed damaging the locality's school playground.

A geological study had established that the collapse was partly caused by the rubble and soil used as filling for a disused quarry on which the school's football pitch was built. This reclaimed quarry was adjacent to another quarry that was still in use and various factors contributed to pressure building on the thin rock face separating the two quarries that eventually led to the collapse.

The report noted that the structural integrity of the school building was not affected by the collapse because it was built on solid rock.