€1 million Infrastructure Malta project to repair Grand Harbour Breakwater скачать в хорошем качестве

€1 million Infrastructure Malta project to repair Grand Harbour Breakwater

#InvestingInOurMaritimeResources #SustainableInfrastructure Infrastructure Malta is implementing a €1 million project to repair and restore the two arms of the 1910 Grand Harbour Breakwater and its 2012 steel bridge. Decades of waves battering the 110-year-old breakwater dislodged many of the large blocks of this breakwater’s coping structure, putting it at risk of further erosion and irreparable damage. Infrastructure Malta is replacing the missing elements, whilst carrying out other maintenance and restoration works to this important coastal infrastructure. At the same time, the agency is carrying out major maintenance and refurbishment works to the steel bridge connecting one of the breakwater’s arms with Valletta. The Grand Harbour Breakwater system consists of two separate structures. The longer arm, on the Valletta (Fort St Elmo) side of the port, is a 370-metre structure physically detached from the mainland. The second arm extends 120 metres from the shore beneath Fort Ricasoli (Kalkara) on the other side of the harbour. King Edward laid the first stone of this British Government project during a visit to Malta in 1903. Despite several setbacks due to bad weather during its construction, the breakwater was completed in 1910, at a total cost of about £1 million. As part of the ongoing Infrastructure Malta repair works, a team of divers and other workers retrieved the original coping stones that had fallen into the sea around the breakwater through the years. They cleaned and inspected the salvaged stones to make sure they were suitable for re-installation, before reinstating them at the edge of the breakwater’s deck. The project contractors also imported similar limestone blocks from a quarry in Trani, in the Puglia region of Italy, to replace the ones that were broken by the force of the waves. At the same time, the project workers are also carrying out other repairs to the deck slabs, whilst cleaning the masonry from tar stains and other deposits. The original 1910 breakwater also included a bridge connecting the Fort St Elmo arm to the Valletta foreshore. This steel structure was destroyed by Italian e-boats during World War II. A similar bridge was built in the same location eight years ago. Infrastructure Malta is carrying out major maintenance works to this bridge as well. Workers are repairing and repainting the steel structure and replacing the damaged sections of its wooden deck. The agency will eventually also install new handrails and new electrical circuits with an improved lighting system. Weather permitting, all repair and maintenance works of the breakwater and its bridge will be ready by the end of this year. Read more: www.infrastructuremalta.com