10 Million Bamboo Poles for Semarang-Demak Toll Road Sourced from Wonogiri, Magelang, and Purworejo
JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The construction of the Semarang-Demak Toll Road requires a large quantity of bamboo material to support the construction work.
At least 10 million bamboo poles are needed to serve as the mat for this toll road built over the sea.
Quoting the official website of the Toll Road Regulatory Agency (BPJT) of the Ministry of Public Works (PU), on Monday (11/05/2026), the bamboo is sourced from Wonogiri, Magelang, and Purworejo in Central Java Province.
The Semarang-Demak Toll Road is divided into two sections. Section 1 from Semarang to Sayung stretches 10.64 kilometres over the sea and is still under construction. Meanwhile, Section 2 from Sayung to Demak, spanning 16.31 kilometres on land, is already operational.
The Semarang-Demak Toll Road will be integrated with a sea embankment, where the embankment structure over the sea is reinforced by a 17-layer bamboo mat.
The Building Materials and Structure Centre of the Directorate of Settlement and Housing Technical Development, Directorate General of Human Settlements, has conducted testing to assess the suitability of using bamboo material.
The testing was carried out to prepare the bamboo material to be used as a mat construction to accelerate consolidation time in the soil at the Semarang-Demak Toll Road construction site.
The use of bamboo mats not only functions as a foundation but also contributes to the sustainability of the marine ecosystem.
The bamboo used as mats will eventually be submerged and become part of the coral reefs, while also adding structural strength underwater.
Road Pavement and Asphalt Expert, Purnomo, explained that bamboo has characteristics that make it suitable for use in watery or muddy environments.
“Bamboo’s properties mean that if submerged in water for 100 years, it will not rot or decay,” said Purnomo to Kompas.com on Tuesday (14/04/2026).
He stated that construction in swampy areas with muddy and soft soil presents its own challenges. If directly filled, the soil tends to be unstable and can shift.
“To overcome this, the soil is piled with dolken wood. In Java, dolken is not available, whereas bamboo is abundant,” he explained.
Due to its plentiful availability, bamboo is then utilised as an alternative. The bamboo is driven into the ground to increase load-bearing capacity, then arranged into a mat as the base for the embankment.
“So we utilise that bamboo. We drive the bamboo into the ground and on top, create a mat as a good base for the soil embankment for the road body,” said Purnomo.
With this method, the soil structure becomes more stable, enabling it to support the road construction above it.