Jakarta- Ministry of Public Works and People’s Housing (PUPR) targets by the end of 2019, 4,330 km of Trans Papua road in West Papua and Papua provinces would be fully connected. Currently the road that has not been connected is along a stretch of 171.7 km. Although not entirely paved, with the opening of roads in mountainous areas of Papua, it will open isolated areas and reduce the price of goods.
“The construction of Trans Papua road will continue and hopefully by 2019 can be fully connected,” said Minister for Public Works and Housing Basuki Hadimuljono recently. This is to realize the Nawacita vision of President Joko Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla to build from the periphery for equality and social justice.
Director General of Highways, Ministry of Public Works and Housing Arie Setiadi Moerwanto said that road and bridge construction in Papua is not done based on the level of financial feasibility of the road, but in the context of maintaining the unity of the Unitary State of Indonesia. The government wants to accelerate development with the signing of two construction contracts and two supervisory works worth Rp 199.48 billion.
The signing was done by the Committing Officer (PPK), contractors and consultants and witnessed by the Director General of Highways Arie Setiadi Moerwanto, Secretary of the Directorate General of Highways, Soebagiono, Director of Highway, Urban and Regional Road Facility Sugiyartanto, Director of Road Network Development Rachman Arief, Director Iwan Zarkasi Bridge, and Director of Road Preservation Hedy Rahadian.
The signed contract is to replace a wooden bridge with steel frame bridge plus composite girder. The replacement is done because the existing wooden bridge is obsolete and to improve the functionality of the Trans Papua segment between Dekai -Seredala -Oksibil. The contractor of this work is PT Simaka with a contract value of Rp84.4 billion,
The Ministry of Public Works and Housing also signed a 5.5 km border toll road construction contract between Oksibil-Towe Hitam with contractor PT Wijaya Karya worth Rp 108.56 billion. The Ministry has gradually built Papua’s border road along 1098.24 km from Jayapura to Merauke where it has reached 889.3 km and has not connected the length of 208.94 km. The unconnected segment is located in the Oksibil-Towe Hitam segment which is still a dense forest.
For the monitoring package of the road construction the government signed a contract worth Rp. 6.4 billion. This contract is to technical monitoring of the Oksibil-Towe Hitam road segment and to replace the wooden bridge with steel frame bridge plus composite girder.
The challenge in road construction in Papua aside from the weather and natural conditions that are still covered by dense forest, is the absence of rocks. Therefore, rocks must be imported from Palu or use a mixture of soil and cement (soil cement).
West Papua Now 