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Could it be that Party pride prevents the Nationalist government from going ahead on the Connections Project? Did the Prime Minister shoot it through the head simply because it was first proposed by a Labour government? Because it was a development proposal championed by the Greens? Could it possibly be that the PN leadership has sunk to the levels of our former MLP masters who refused to complete the Regional Road for 16 years out of spite?
It took a change in government for the Sta Venera tunnels to transform the trip north from Marsa from an agonizing 45 minute smog sauna to a ten minute commute. For 16 years we choked one another from Marsa through Pietá, because of partisan pride.
Linking all the harbour towns across the water of Grand Harbour and Marsamxett was a wonderful idea no matter who came up with it first. To shoot it down simply because it came from the other side reveals a small mindedness which is appalling in any Prime Minister.
I simply cannot believe that the people who have put a lid on the Connections Project are even familiar with it. Nobody could be and resist it: a tunnel under Valletta entering the rock face at Marsamxett and exiting below the cliff at the other side would allow ferries to connect Sliema to Valletta and to the Three Cities in minutes.
The tunnel runs through Valletta 40m under Old Theatre Street turning the Main Guard building into a new gateway to Valletta. It also allows for a road tunnel above the sea passage which would permit motor vehicles to access a multi storey parking area under Palace Square without touching a Valletta street. It would be costlier than the Floriana car park but would make short term visits more attractive. It would also eliminate all traffic except resident traffic from Valletta’s streets. The pollution of slow traffic looking for a parking place would be gone for good.
Elaborated further the original plan can be extended to increase its overall reach. Not only will harbour ferries pick up passengers from all along the shoreline but further tunnels could make the pedestrian transport system extend further. A lift and tunnel complete with airport style moving carpet could connect Paola Square to the shoreline and ferry access making the whole system available to Fgura residents as well. A similar tunnel under Manwel Dimech Street in Sliema would extend the system to St Julian’s and Paceville as well as connecting the upper part of the town through elevators at the Rudolph Street Junction to both its shores.
Increasing pedestrian traffic through Valletta would be a godsend to its ailing commercial and cultural life. The Three Cities could also do with better access to the rest of the country and with ferry/bus links meeting on its shores they will once more become the focus for the southern towns and villages. Revitalising the upper part of Sliema and providing an alternative to motor traffic is nothing to sneeze at either. St Julian’s and Paceville would not be worse off with fewer cars. The northern bus/ferry link would not only serve the ferry system but also increase pedestrian traffic to Sliema’s shopping district.
We should be falling over one another to make this happen. It affects the lives of the majority of the Maltese living in the most densely populated part of the most densely populated country in Europe.
Designed as a stand alone commercial project the original proposal did not require a cent of public money. Accessing the funding facilities available to Malta through the European Investment bank, the project would pay for itself in real time adding significantly to Malta’s infrastructure and its attractiveness to tourists and residents alike. Originally quoted to cost Lm8.5 million, it would now cost close to twice as much. Procrastination costs money.
What such a project does for Marsa and Msida in traffic reduction need not be spelt out. It would also benefit public transport significantly by clearing the way and allowing the establishment of bus lanes to increase their attractiveness.
La Valette himself would go for it. Was he not the one to build a bridge of boats from Birgu to Senglea to be able to pool the strength of their defenders as needed in the Great Seige? Was he not the one to invest funds gathered from all over Europe to build the city that bears his name? It has now been reduced to the state of a national shame: a world heritage site being smothered to death by inertia. It is a decaying mummy losing the fight against the petrified rent laws and political paralysis. We all deserve better.
We deserve better than a government that has not had the acumen to re-install the Barrakka lift after 17 years in office and now announces that nothing will happen because nobody has been found daft enough to invest private funds in a minor infrastructural project with disproportionate public benefits but with little or no profit for the investors. Installing the Barrakka lift would be child’s play for investors taking charge of the whole Connections Project.
When will this government get off its hands? Why is it that it only finds energy for insanities like golf, massive staircases from nowhere to nowhere, outsize embassies and firework extravaganzas?
harry.vassallo@alternattiva.org.mt
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