Jakarta's road repairs to start next week, says city agency

Mustaqim Adamrah , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 03/12/2008 1:35 AM

The city public works agency said Tuesday it would start fixing damaged roads in Jakarta permanently next week.

Agency head Wisnu Subagya Yusuf said, "It will be safer to repair damaged roads in the third week of March when the rainy season is about to be over and rainfall starts to drop, based on the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency's forecast," he said at City Hall.

"It will be a waste to repair damaged roads while it's still raining."

Heavy rains and poor drainage have caused water to sit in large pools which, coupled with the city's heavy traffic, have corroded street surfaces.

For several weeks, motorists have been forced to maneuver around potholes on many of the city's streets.

The city police's Traffic Management Center recorded 129 damaged spots throughout the city on March 9.

From Jan. 1 to Mar. 9 the center recorded 39 accidents related to damaged roads.

The accidents caused nine deaths, 27 casualties and slower traffic jams, the center said Monday.

Damaged roads have also hurt the Indonesian economy, a government report said.

Up to 60 percent of the country's exports and imports have been slowed because of damaged roads leading to Tanjung Priok port.

According to Wisnu, damaged roads accounted for 1.06 percent of a total of 39 million square meters of Jakarta's roads by the end of December last year.

"However, the figure rebounded to 1.71 percent in early February due to heavy rain that peaked on Feb. 1 and 2 after dropping to 0.71 percent by the end of January due to the agency's work," Wisnu said.

"Road structures become more fragile when rain falls, creating pools," he said.

"All we can do at the moment is swift repairs by patching potholes. It's a move towards zero potholes."

The agency, he said, had patched 1,940 square meters of potholes created along busway lanes and 13,771 square meters of potholes along other roads.

Wisnu said the agency would have a total of Rp 263 billion this year to repair roads throughout the capital.

But he said the city ideally needed approximately Rp 280 billion on an annual basis to maintain all Jakarta's roads.

"As a consequence of a limited budget this year, we'll buy local raw materials, instead of importing them," he said.