Dion Bisara, Jakarta Globe 18 Nov 09;
The government has decided that a bridge is the most feasible of three options for connecting Java and Sumatra, paving the way for construction of the $10 billion Sunda Strait bridge to proceed, officials said on Tuesday.
The decision removes at least some of the uncertainty over the fate of the bridge, which would connect the country’s two most populous islands.
Last week, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa said the government was still considering the tunnel, while Deputy Transportation Minister Bambang Susantono said in September, when he was deputy to the coordinating minister, that improving ferry services might be the answer.
However, Hermanto Dardak, the newly appointed deputy minister of public works, said on Tuesday that it had been decided that the bridge was the solution for linking the islands.
“The Sunda Strait is a 150-meter-deep ocean trench. So considering the potential dangers from earthquakes, the bridge option was selected for safety reasons. It is also better as rail services can be accommodated,” he said. “If we opted for a tunnel, capacity would be severely limited.”
Hermanto said a presidential decree would be issued establishing a committee to oversee a feasibility study.
Marzan Aziz Iskandar, head of the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), agreed that a bridge was the best option.
“We are quite familiar with bridge technology, compared with tunnels, with which we have little experience. Indonesia can avail itself of the expertise gained during the building of the Suramadu Bridge [linking Surabaya and Madura] and a bridge in Batam.”
The Banten and Lampung provincial governments, which initiated the Sunda Strait bridge proposal, can now breath a little easier as observers had warned that central government support would be essential if there was to be any realistic prospect of it ever being built.
PT Bangungraha Sejahtera Mulia, a subsidiary of Artha Graha Networks, has already completed a preliminary study on the project’s viability.
The BSM study calls for a 30-kilometer bridge spanning the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra. The project would consist of a series of spans carrying a six-lane highway and double-track railway via the islands of Prajurit, Sangiang and Ular.
The longest span is projected to be about three km in length, more than 50 percent longer than the main span of the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan, the longest suspension bridge in the world.
Indonesia To Build World's Longest Bridge
Bernama 19 Nov 09;
JAKARTA, Nov 19 (Bernama) -- Indonesia would begin constructing the world's would-be longest bridge in Sunda Strait connecting two main islands of Sumatra and Java in 2014, as an effort to boost infrastructure development in the southeast Asian largest economy.
The 30-km long bridge is expected to boost economy in both islands, particularly in Sumatra island, in which over 80 percent of the country's about 230 million population live, said Public Works Minister Joko Kirmanto said here Thursday.
"The bridge could become a landmark of Indonesia," Antara news agency cited the minister as saying.
Kirmanto said that that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had asked him to establish a task force team to analyze the mega project.
"We expect the construction would start in 2014. The President has instructed the public minister to set up a team which will analyze the project within the first 100 days of the cabinet work, " he told reporters after a cabinet meeting at the State Palace here.
"As the technology of bridge has developed, the bridge could be a land mark of Indonesia," said Kirmanto.
The project could cost over 100,000 trillion rupiah (some US$10.6 billion), according to a pre-feasibility study.
"The team would count the real cost of the project and to determine the source of the funds. It may be from the state budget or private sector, or the combination of them," he said.
In January 2010, the team would start working, said Kirmanto.
According to the pre-feasibility study, the bridge would have the longest span in the world, about 220 meters.
President Yudhoyono, who was re-elected for his second term on July 8, has promised to boost development of infrastructure during his second term to reach an annual economic growth of at least 7 percent at the end of his term in 2014.
In June, Indonesia completed the building of the longest bridge in Southeast Asia with about 5 kilometers in length, connecting East Java and its island of Madura.
Experts had predicted that the sea ports in the strait could not facilitate the growing economic activities in the two islands within ten years.
-- BERNAMA
