Authorities will seek payment from party responsible for Marsa cooking oil spill for damage caused

The authorities will seek payment from the party responsible for a cooking oil spill which caused damage to the Marsa flyover last Friday, Infrastructure Minister Aaron Farrugia has said.

Speaking with this media house, the minister said that there are police investigations ongoing from the criminal aspect, and then Transport Malta and Infrastructure Malta will take civil court action against the responsible party due to the damage caused. Minister Farrugia didn’t know the exact amount the damage caused cost to fix, but was informed that it could run in the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands.

The accident occurred at around 11am on Friday when a truck carrying an estimated 200 litres of cooking oil spilled its contents.

Addressing journalists that afternoon, Infrastructure Malta CEO Ivan Falzon said that the top layer of asphalt was damaged by the spill and was to be stripped and relaid. Around 300m of road was affected. Contractors had been deployed to clean up the spill before the asphalting began.

As a result of the spill, the traffic system had been disrupted with traffic jams reported in the area and the affected road was closed. After the cleanup, works on the road started at 1am on Saturday.

Works were then completed on Saturday.