Design
W
hen one looks
at today’s con-
struction indus-
try in our is-
lands, one sees a situation where it is
very active indeed. There’s plenty of
work for it, new projects, enormous
retrofitting, regeneration projects in
certain areas, coupled with a big de-
mand for boutique hotels in Valletta,
and a demand for affordable hous-
ing. At the same time one also notes
that in the hospitality and catering
industries there are a number of on-
going renovation works in hand too,
as well as a demand for high calibre
offices with certain levels of finishing
since they are targeting overseas cli-
ents. It is therefore fair to state that
there is a lot going on in the area of
construction and development.
Yet all this work obviously brings
with it certain inconveniences. The
greatest – and most obvious - of these
is that of dumping demolition, rock
cutting or excess waste from develop-
mental projects. Over the years this
need for adequate resources and op-
tions to see where one can dump our
industry’s extras, has not been prop-
erly looked at nor has it been solved.
The quarries’ industry is an
obvious necessity.
It is easy to talk about safeguarding
the environment, and that quarries
are an eyesore we can do away with,
but the quarries’ industry cannot be
so easily done away with because it is
obvious that they are a necessity. At
the same time, accepting the fact that
we have to work with them, there has
not been any thought put into their
possible relocation options.
And many are now even scheduled by
the Planning Authority.
The quarries in fact provide the nat-
ural resource of the country hence
their importance to the industry.
The local stone is always by far the
preferred material of construction as
compared to the imported material,
or to precast. It always is by far the
most attractive material to use, at the
same time reflecting the local char-
acter. There is no comparison with
plastered bricks that have been cov-
ered with graffiato. The local lime-
stone is by far the better one. In cer-
tain parts of rural Malta and Gozo,
the local stone is always the preferred
material since it blends in better with
the natural environment than does
anything made of concrete. The out-
standing problem is that demolition
waste is being used to fill certain old-
er quarries which are in disuse while
no new permits are being given for
either extensions of quarries or for
new quarries to be opened.
There is a great deal of bureaucracy
for an existent quarry to be given a
extension permit. It is therefore ob-
vious that anyone who already owns a
quarry will look after it tremendous-
ly, knowing well that it’s life is limit-
ed an d the potential of extending it is
quite low. At the same time, to fill it
DESIGN&BUILD
all this work
obviously
brings with it
certain incon-
veniences. The
greatest...of
these is that of
dumping dem-
olition
up quickly it then becomes difficult
to recycle existing materials proper-
ly. Not to say costly. The situation is
a double edged sword and this is why
I said that dumping is a problem.
Possibilities
I believe that the time is coming –
probably is already with us – that we
start investigating the possibilities
of exporting our demolition waste
or dispose of it at sea in areas where
land reclamation projects are being
contemplated. The cut rock could
easily be dumped directly at sea in
specifically designated areas. At this
point it is worth noting that in the
standard way in which rock cutting
takes place in our islands, the rock
ends up broken down into small
pieces such that there is little poten-
tial use for it elsewhere. If, on the
Q 2 , 2017
17