0 After the deluge, pothole war begins

Officials are struggling to fill the potholes that have appeared on the city’s streets as the flood that inundated the capital last week begins to subside. A vast number of potholes were seen at the Transjakarta shelters in front of Plaza Semanggi, South Jakarta; Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta; and Jl. Salemba, Central Jakarta, for example. A small deep pothole was seen several hundred meters before the Pedati toll gate in Prumpung, East Jakarta, while a meter-long pothole filled with water was seen at the intersection near Jl. Dewi Sartika headed to Plaza Kalibata, also located in East Jakarta. 

The Public Works Agency said that it had received 2,400 reports of damaged roads across the capital city as of Jan. 25, 60 percent of which were in West Jakarta. “We will wait until the roads dry and patch the potholes with asphalt at night,” Maman Suparman, the head of the Road and Bridge Maintenance Section at the agency told The Jakarta Post over the telephone. “We prioritize safety over comfort. We plan to layer up the damaged road sections in the dry season around May or June.” Maman said the agency had been allocated Rp 30 billion (US$3.1 million) in 2012 for urgent road maintenance, such as patching potholes. Damaged roads make motorists feel uncomfortable and also increase the risk of traffic accidents. 

On Jan. 22, Purwanto, 30, and his sister Novita, 20, fell from his motorcycle when he tried to avoid a pothole on Jl. Let. Gen. Sutoyo in Cililitan, East Jakarta. They fell into Transjakarta’s dedicated lane and were hit by a passing bus. Purwanto died on the scene; his sister is expected to live. According to 2009 Traffic and Public Transportation Law, officials face up to five years’ imprisonment for failing to repair road damage that results in a fatal traffic accident The Public Works Agency has been accepting reports about potholes and road damage via its Twitter account, @PoskoDPUDKI, since January 2012. 

The agency also uses the account to advise people of the roads that are not under their remit, such as Jl. MT Haryono, Jl. Gatot Subroto and TB Simatupang in South Jakarta, for example, whose maintenance is the responsibility of the central government. Maman said that garbage blocking drains was the principal cause of the potholes that emerged after flooding, not shoddy construction material or poor maintenance, as popularly assumed. “Jakarta’s drainage system needs to be cleaned up,” Maman said. “If the water runs well, it won’t damage the road. 

The drainage system is clogged with garbage, because people throw their trash into the rivers and sewers,” he said. Sigit Pranowo Hadiwardoyo, a lecturer at the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Indonesia (UI), said the city’s poor drainage system overshadowed all other issues in road maintenance. Asphalt, according to Hadiwardoyo, was vulnerable to inundation and was exposed to excessive traffic burden because of its flexible characteristic. Burden on the surface of the asphalt creates air cavities that allow water to seep in and damage the roads. “The question is whether the Public Works Agency monitors road conditions every day,” Hadiwardoyo said. “A road will show a visible sign of damage before it forms a pothole. Potholes should be immediately repaired or their size will grow,” he said.

source : the jakarta post