The Rebuilding of Rabat Gheriexem Road, Rabat (Malta)

Rabat (Malta)

For decades, residents in this area have been calling on the authorities to stop the gradual sinking of Gheriexem Road, which was causing extensive damages to their residences, some of which were in danger of collapsing. As the road continued to deteriorate, Infrastructure Malta issued a public tender for the reconstruction in July 2020. The architectural plans were prepared by the Ministry for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects’ Works and Infrastructure Department, in consultation with the environmental and archaeological authorities, to minimise adverse impacts on adjacent fields and to conserve the area’s rich archaeological potential.

The successful bid was won by Bonnici Brothers, with Forward Structures as the Key Expert Structural Consultants. This €4 million project included the reconstruction of the road on piled raft foundations, designed to stabilise the slope and provide a good footing for the extension to the road, creating new service culverts for passage of new cables as well as a new storm water network. Up above, a cantilevered walkway provides a new promenade with safer footpaths and crossings in a road that previously had no infrastructure for pedestrians. The road now also includes additional parking spaces, an electric car charging station, street furniture and a row of embedded planters with 40 new trees and other plants served by a newly constructed storm water reservoir.