A letter from somebody who doesn't know what he's talking about – according to Bo Peep and her sheep

Alex Torpiano is dean of the University of Malta’s Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering. Though he isn’t writing this letter in that capacity, it should be framed in that context. When I see that people prefer to take Astrid Vella the folk leader’s word over his, I remember that Maltese society is still mired in primitive belief in magic, superstition and folk wisdom. I suppose that if you observe it from a distance, it is mightily amusing. But when you’re stuck in it, surrounded by primitive thinkers who are forever doing the equivalent of touching a lucky charm and saying a prayer as an alternative to seeing a doctor, it is demoralising.

Letters to the editor, The Times Friday, 27 February
One-sided advice on geological excavation
Alex Torpiano, Lija

Peter Gatt (February 25) informs us that he was the geologist who gave advice to Flimkien Għal-Ambjent Aħjar regarding the geological risks in excavating next to St John’s Co-Cathedral, something which I did not know. I appreciate his skill as a geologist, who can identify and anticipate geological risks, but he seems to fail to appreciate that there may be others who have engineering skills to mitigate such risks.

I do not wish to go into the technicalities of the engineering that we used to resolve the problem of fissures and cavitation that were found below sea level in the project he most graciously refers to. Suffice it to say that most techniques currently available for geo-technical exploration cannot identify cavities below sea level, other than the microgravity technique. However, the identification of cavities above sea level, as would be the case, presumably, in any excavation in Mount Sciberras, can be made by a variety of geophysical techniques; it can also be done by judicious coring, a technique with which we are now very familiar, even in Malta.

I would like to thank Mr Gatt for referring to the difficulties encountered in other projects in Malta by myself (even though I half suspect that the reference was not at all benign) and for acknowledging that we did manage to resolve the problems encountered, without any damage to the immediately adjacent high rise blocks which we had just built.

I would also add the experience we gained by the “tunnelling” of the underground relief road in Tigne’ Point, directly under the heritage Garden Battery structure – a much more difficult and testing geotechnical operation. But, as was the point in my original letter, with the right experts, things can be done, irrespective of the geology. Nevertheless, the main point in my letter was that one-sided expert advice should never be used to short circuit the due planning process.