Aviation Avenue bridge deck in place
On Monday evening, Infrastructure Malta hoisted and set in position the 34-metre steel deck of the new footbridge over Aviation Avenue, between Luqa and Gudja.
This €2.3 million investment will facilitate safer pedestrian, public transport and cycling commutes to and from these localities and other important nearby locations, including Malta International Airport and the Institute of Tourism Studies.
Infrastructure Malta’s contractors fabricated the bridge’s 43tonne deck in a specialised metalworks factory in Venice during the last quarter of 2019, before shipping it to Ħal Far for final assembly. On Monday evening, the deck was slowly transported to the project site through Ħal Far Road, where cranes lifted it in place onto two concrete pillars, one on either side of Aviation Avenue’s fivelane dual carriageway.
The seven-metre pillars form part of two identical access and support buildings including helical concrete access ramps that will lead pedestrians and cyclists up to the gently-sloped bridge deck. In the centre of each spiral ramp structure, Infrastructure
Malta is installing lifts to ensure that this infrastructure is accessible and comfortable to everyone, in line with guidelines established by the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability.
The new bridge will also link the two bus lay-bys (Avjazzjoni) at opposite sides of the road.
This project, which may be part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union, is scheduled to be completed by summer.
The new bridge is one of over six segregated pedestrian and cycling road crossings that Infrastructure Malta is implementing on Malta’s arterial road network in 2020 and 2021. Last week, the agency started lifting in place the first sections of another 105metre footbridge in Blata l-Bajda, to connect several locations in Ħamrun, Floriana and Marsa. This bridge will be open to road users by summer as well.
Infrastructure Malta will soon also start building a similar footbridge on Dom Mintoff Road, for safer pedestrian and cycling routes between the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology’s main campus, the residential and industrial zones of Corradino and the centre of Paola.
Other new segregated road crossings are being developed as part of ongoing or upcoming Infrastructure Malta road projects, such as the Central Link Project in Mrieħel, Birkirkara, Balzan and Attard, and the Marsa Junction Project, between Paola and Marsa. The agency is planning more footbridges, subways, segregated cycle tracks and footpaths for quicker connections and reduced accident risks in other localities as well.