Mature Aleppo trees might not survive transplanting

Plans submitted by the government for the upgrading of the Rabat road will include the uprooting of mature trees along the dual carriageway, whose transplantation into a central strip does not guarantee their longevity.

While the government has attempted to play down reports of over 200 mature trees facing the chop for the road upgrade, their relocation into a centre-strip for road-widening raises the prospect of even more loss of agricultural land.

According to the plans, a large number of the mature Aleppo trees that line the road will be uprooted and a portion of them could be transplanted on a central-strip.

The government has insisted that the new road project includes new trees and landscaping, although the risks of losing the mature trees and more agricultural trees have not been addressed.

It was only yesterday that the plans posted to the PA website showed new trees being added to the road project, after The Times broke the story of the trees’ removal.

Back in December, biologist Alan Deidun warned aboutclaims of ‘transplanting’ Aleppo pine trees on the Xemxija-Mellieha stretch at Mistra as the trees would not survive the process.

The Environment and Resources Authority had also objected to the uprooting of the same Aleppo trees on the Rabat road for Ludwig Camilleri’s proposed fuel pump station. Indeed, Camilleri’s own environmental impact statement for the fuel pump station warned that the “potential for relocating these trees is very limited, given their maturity.”

The government yesterday denied that hundreds of trees in the area between Attard and Ta’ Qali were going to be removed as part of a major road infrastructure project in the central areas of Malta.

The Times reported that plans submitted a few days ago indicate almost 200 mature trees, most of which are located in upper Mdina Road between Mount Carmel Hospital and the Saqqajja Hill junction, will have to be uprooted to make way for the project.

A considerable number of trees in lower Mdina Road, especially those close to the San Anton Gardens junction, will also be removed.

The government attempted to rubbish the claims, saying the majority of trees which the article made reference to in Mdina Road will remain where they are, to be protected by means of a central strip, which will be built purposely between the road’s two opposing-direction carriages.

“The environmental authorities suggested this solution – with something similar having already been done for the Coast Road project in the Kennedy Grove area – and Transport Malta architects included it as part of the environmental protection measures which will be adopted,” it said.

An extra 212 trees will also be planted, the government underscored, highlighting that the project had been drawn up after discussions with the Environment and Resources Authority.

“In cases where trees need to be uprooted to increase the safety of the new roads, these will be re-planted in other places, and new trees – of the same maturity and size – will replace them in the areas where the trees were removed,” it said.

The €55 million Central Link Project announced last month, should take around two years to complete, and aims to improve the route between the Mriehel bypass in the direction of Birkirkara, Balzan and Attard, going on to the Saqqajja Hill roundabout, which connects Ta’ Qali, Attard, Rabat, Zebbug and Mosta.

Transport Minister, Ian Borg, had said that much less agricultural land would be used for the project than is actually permitted, and had highlighted that 19,300sq.m of landscaped areas would be added as a result of it. He did not however give any information related to the uprooting, or otherwise, of trees.