Rattling a Nation

Many times, I thank God for how lucky I am. I’ve lived a comfortable life to date, have visited a substantial number of foreign countries, and have been privileged enough to live my life on two different continents. Each time I visit a foreign country, I am amazed at how advanced the infrastructure and road systems of such a country are. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about our islands, which seem to be moving rapidly from bad to worse in this regard.

If the much-famed public transport strike last July was farcical enough, then the state of our roads almost certainly is up there with it. With the recent rain showers, Malta has degenerated from a network of roads full of potholes to a network of roads filled with craters that could rival those on the moon. And I’m not saying this to jump on the recent press bandwagon about the roads’ appalling state, but I’m saying this from first hand experience as a driver with nearly two years under his belt.

Take a trip to Sliema Road, San Gwann, for instance. This road is used by thousands of vehicles on a daily basis and is one of the most important junctions in Malta as it links the Regional Road roundabout to San Gwann, and also Mater Dei Hospital. Recently, The Times reported that this stretch of road has over 124 potholes in 500 metres. Going up or down this road resembles one taking part in a slalom ski race; such is the nature of cars swerving from left to right on a frequent basis in order to avoid these deadly craters. Pass over one deep hole and you’ve simply had it – you’ll be footing the bill for a tow truck, a new tyre and possibly even a new rim. And it’s not even your fault. With such roads to navigate, it’s no surprise that I hear a new rattle on my poor car every day of the week.

Another class act of a road is Ganu Street, Birkirkara (the road going down towards Birkirkara from the Vodafone roundabout). This road also resembles a fully-fledged slalom and is more disastrous than the days America was under the Bush Administration. On a recent venture to this street, I had the pleasure of braking around 3 times in order to swerve my car and avoid this series of potholes, and, when I thought that I had evaded all of them, I ended up crashing into one nonetheless. Honestly, sometimes I wonder whether its best to crash one’s car into another while avoiding the pothole or simply driving through the potholes themselves, hoping for the best while at it.

Of course, these are only two examples taken from routes that I use frequently, as there are many other roads that are in such dire need of repair that I could simply name from memory. The shocking thing about it all is that while there are groups of people out there performing maintenance on these roads, the work is of a shoddy nature to say the least, to the extent that by the next rainfall, all the potholes would be uncovered once again and hence, we’re back to square one!

I may not be the Minister for Infrastructure, Technology and Communications but I believe that action has to be taken to rectify these ridiculous problems with immediate effect. If the local contractors being assigned such jobs to fix our roads are performing work that even a bunch of chimpanzees could do better, then why don’t we employ people from abroad in this regard? I’m sure that there are workers out there, in the EU, who would do the job at double the standards but for half the price that we’re currently paying. Maybe then we’d have a road system to brag about.

This situation has reached the extent where the nation should be declared in a state of emergency, with the only difference being that the emergency is to repair the terrible stuff that we drivers face day after day. After all, we’re paying hundreds of Euros per year in road tax – with hundreds of thousands of cars on the roads, where is all the money going? I can’t answer that one myself, but I can definitely affirm that it isn’t going towards the quality, EU-standard road system that we sorely need.