First major traffic disturbance in Kappara expected next month

The first major traffic disturbance from the Kappara junction, works on which started this morning, are expected in May. Transport Malta said drivers would be encouraged to take alternative routes as of May as new culverts would be dug around the Kappara roundabout for electrical cables supplying Mater Dei Hospital and Sliema. These works will form part of the second of 10 stages of works and will mark the first in a series of road closures. TM said much of the disturbance would be when schools were closed and most of the works would be carried out at night. The culverts would be followed by the widening of the road adjacent to the University, the laying of a new storm water network, the demolition of several existing structures, the lowering of the roundabout by a metre, the laying of the bridge’s foundations and its final construction. The €22.5million project is set to take 77 weeks to complete and TM chief executive James Piscopo said a complex plan had been devised to minimise inconvenience to motorists. A TM study of the junction found that some 90,000 cars used the roundabout every day, with the project expected to reduce this load by half when completed. Until then, TM...