Transport Minister backtracks on narrowing of Mellieha bypass

After receiving flak over a decision to reduce the Mellieha bypass to a three-lane road, Transport Minister Ian Borg announces u-turn on Facebook

Transport Minister Ian Borg (right) with new roads agency chief executive Frederick Azzopardi announcing the widening of the Santa Venera bypass
Transport Minister Ian Borg (right) with new roads agency chief executive Frederick Azzopardi announcing the widening of the Santa Venera bypass

The Mellieha bypass will remain a four-lane road after public outcry forced Transport Minister Ian Borg to reverse a decision to remove one lane.

On his Facebook wall this afternoon, Borg said that he listened to the concerns raised by those who use the bypass regularly and ordered that the plans be changed to accomodate four lanes and a bicycle lane.

The issue was raised in Parliament last Monday by Nationalist Party Whip Robert Cutajar, a former mayor of Mellieha. The decision to narrow one of the carriageways to a single lane jarred with plans to increase two new lanes on the Santa Venera bypass.

Borg said Mellieha Labour MP Clayton Bartolo and locality mayor John Buttigieg spoke to him about the concerns of road users and Mellieha residents over the plans to narrow the road. "We discussed the plans for this road and with the help of the architects who are working to help set up the new roads agency, we have designed a new proposal with two lanes either way with fewer accident risks," Borg said.

In a jibe at his political adversary, Borg "assured' Cutajar that unlike what happened in past administrations, he was not one to steamroll over the locality mayor as former PN roads minister Austin Gatt had done when the Cirkewwa road was redone with a single lane either way.