Flood relief project edging closer to completion

The architect responsible for the flood relief project speaks to Illum about the progress being made, timeframes and the difficulties faced as the project edges towards comlpetion

8 June 2014, 5:39pm
by James J. Piscopo

1 min read

The project involves 16km of underground tunnels

The underground tunnels have a 3-metre diameter, large enough for construction trucks

Several parts had to be reinforced when large crevices were discovered.

Part of the Qormi component near Aldo Moro road in Marsa

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Several phases of the National Flood Relief Project (NFRP) are now heading towards completion, Sunday newspaper Illum reports.

According to project leader Carm Mifsud Borg, the section planned to relieve Qormi’s flooding problems will be ready by the end of August.

Others, such as the Zabbar-Marsascala section is 80% ready and is expected to be finalised by October, while the Zebbug component will be ready a month later. Both components were extended by a further 300 metres after the prices submitted in the tendering process were cheaper than expected.

The €57 million flood relief project includes 16 kilometres of underground tunnels with a three-metre diameter. These are expected to alleviate the flooding problems of areas such as Msida, Qormi, Birkirkara, Lija, Balzan, Iklin, Attard, Gzira, Zebbuġ, Żabbar and Marsascala.

“The largest component, which stretches from Naxxar to Ta’ Xbiex, still has around 200 metres left to be drilled and will be completed by February,” architect Mifsud Borg said.

Asked how much of the water will be stored and re-used, he said that only part of the project will store the water, but this will amount to 300,000 cubic metres of second-class water.

“We could not store much more since this would have led the project’s cost to increase three-fold,” architect Mifsud Borg said.

The project leader also delved into several difficulties faced throughout the process, including sewage leakages and World War II shelters among others.

Read more in today’s edition of Illum