Transport and Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg has decried what he described as “fake news” by the Nationalist Party, whose media arm said that part of the newly opened Marsa flyover had collapsed.
Pictures doing the rounds on the social media show that a nasty pothole has opened up on part of the first flyover, which was inaugurated a few weeks ago in a ceremony that cost the taxpayer €40,000.
In a Facebook post, Borg assured that the flyovers “have not collapsed and have not been damaged.” He insisted that the structures were built using materials that can withstand seismic conditions and bad weather, and will last more than a hundred years.
He said the photos only show that a “small and strip of asphalt used temporarily until proper expansion joints can be installed” has come off.
These expansion joints, the minister said, cannot be put in place until after the third flyover is completed and a final layer of asphalt is laid on all three structures simultaneously.
For the first time ever, a more resistant kind of asphalt will be used, he continued.
Borg said he was disappointed that some were trying to ridicule the work of thousands of Maltese and foreign workers over minor damage in the temporary asphalt.
He added that over 451,000 vehicles have used the flyover so far, instead of being stuck in traffic.
