After waiting for so long, the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) finally started using rubber asphalt for handling national roads throughout Indonesia.

This policy is a follow-up to President Joko Widodo’s instructions when engaging with Rubber Farmers in South Sumatra Province, in Musi Banyuasin Regency in March 2019.

In its official statement on Thursday (22/08/2019), the Ministry of PUPR is targeting that in 2019 the effective length of the national road is 65.56 km using asphalt rubber as many as 2,542 tons, assuming the use of rubber is 7% of asphalt, the amount of rubber absorbed as much as 177.95 tons.

The use of rubber asphalt is one of them in the work of preservation of the Central Java Cross Road on the Ajibarang-Banyumas-Klampok-Banjarnegara section in Central Java Province (Central Java) along 4.8 km of the total handled 63.03 km.

In 2019, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing through the National Road Implementation Center (BBPJN) VII of the Directorate General of Highways undertook to improve the quality of the Central Java Road which included routine maintenance of roads (20.64 km), routine maintenance of conditions (25.12 km), rehabilitation major (10.87 km), road reconstruction (0.9 km), holding work (10.87 km), and bridge maintenance (597.7 km).

Head of BBPJN VII, Akhmad Cahyadi, said that the preservation work of the package carried out major rehabilitation along the 10.5 km covering repairs to existing, patched potholes and paving 2-layer roads. Six sections are being worked on, two of which use a rubber asphalt coating along 4.8 km. Namely the Sokaraja-Kaliori section along 2.9 km full asphalt rubber entirely and Patikraja-Rawalo along 1 km of a total length of 1.9 km, the remaining modified asphalt.

The advantages of natural rubber asphalt mixture that is improving the quality of asphalt pavement in terms of service life and resistance to grooves. The use of rubber asphalt for asphalting has been carried out by the Ministry of PUPR in several locations of national roads, one of which is on the Ciawi-Sukabumi section and Karawang-Cikampek BTS Road.

In addition to using rubber asphalt in major rehabilitation works, BBPJN VII through the Work Unit for the Implementation of the National Road Region II in Central Java to improve the quality of roads on the Purwokerto-Patikraja section by replacing asphalt roads into rigid concrete.

The entire road preservation construction work was carried out by the contractor PT Satria Buana Pamula Sakti with a 2019 State Budget of Rp.49.7 billion. The implementation period is 343 calendar days since the January 23 contract and is targeted to be completed on December 31, 2019.

At present, the progress of all work has reached 57.3% or faster than the plan of 53%.

Akhmad said that the handling of the Central Java Cross Road is to improve the quality of service for motorists because of the connection between the South Cross lane and the Trans Java Toll Road, and also the North Coast line (Pantura).

In addition to road preservation, improvement of road quality is also carried out with improvement and construction of new drainage along the 3.6 km. The drainage construction with the new construction is in the Purwokerto-Patikraja section (350 meters).

Whereas concrete construction on Jalan Veteran (250 meters) and several spots on the Purwokerto-Patikraja-Rawalo-Sukoraja-Kaliori stretch of 3 km.

According to Akhmad, the construction of road drainage that is connected to the environmental drainage system is very important to avoid inundation to extend the life of road services.

Some of the sections that are being worked on have been equipped with lighting using solar cells, especially those that cross-city / district areas and accident-prone points.

Furthermore, in 2020, the increase of sections that have not been handled will continue including widening the road with a width of fewer than 7 meters (4.5-5.5 meters) along 21.7 km.

Then, in the Banyumas-Klampok Regency boundary (7 km), the Banjarnegara City Klampok (12.8 km), and the Banjarnegara City-Wonosobo Regency boundary (1.9 km).

Then it also proposed widening the road on the Ajibarang package along 1.8 km, namely the Buntu-Banyumas segment (800 meters) and the Banyumas-boundary of Banjarnegara Regency (1 km). ***

Mediasumutku.com, 22/08/2019