Bridge in Palembang may collapse due to excessive urination

Bridge in Palembang may collapse due to excessive urination

Muhammad Uzair, The Jakarta Post, Palembang

The Palembang Transportation Office will soon reroute heavy
vehicles from Ampera bridge to the Musi II bridge in the near
future because a section of the Ampera bridge continues to slope
at an angle and cause an inordinate amount of resonance during
heavy traffic.

Head of the city's transportation office, Syaidina Ali said on
Thursday that his office would soon redirect the traffic of cargo
vehicles weighing more than one ton from the Ampera bridge.

He added that the irregular slant of the bridge had been
confirmed by Professor Annas Ali, a highway and bridge expert at
the public works office who conducted research on the bridge
recently.

One of the reasons for the apparent structural deterioration
was due to the frequency of people urinating on one of the steel
pillars of the bridge, causing it weaken due to the corrosive
forces of human urine.

"Try standing on the Ampera bridge. If the traffic passing on
the bridge is heavy, you can feel it moving quite a bit," said
Syaidina.

The 1,177-meter long and 22-meter wide bridge is one of the
most vital bridges in Palembang connecting the upper and the
lower part of the city. Besides being one of the main modes for
commuting, the bridge is also one of the city's famous landmarks
and a tourist attraction.

Head of the highway and bridge department at the Palembang
Public Works Office, Azmi Lakoni, said that the office had not
yet done research on the condition of the bridge.

"The office has not yet done thorough tests on the slant of
the bridge, but we are concerned that one of its main support
piers has been weakened by urine, as it is a popular spot for
locals to relieve themselves," he said.

He explained that urine had high acidic levels and thus
corroded the steel on the bottom of one of the two main piers,
which could lead to a collapse of the bridge eventually.

Another problem that was pointed out was that people had
stolen pieces of the bridge.

In 1998, when the country was simultaneously in a state of
euphoria and confusion sparked by the reformasi movement, thieves
were known to have dismantled some parts of the bridge. They
climbed the tower and cut off several parts.

The Ampera bridge, built in April, 1962, after being approved
by former president Sukarno. Funds for the construction came from
the Japanese war reparations to Indonesia. The bridge was
inaugurated in 1965 and was initially named the Bung Karno
bridge.

However, following the political upheaval in 1966, when anti-
Sukarno protests were strong, the name of the bridge was changed
to Ampera (Amanat Penderitaan Rakyat or the Mandate of People's
Pain). The Ampera bridge was renovated once, in 1981, at a cost
of Rp 850 million following concerns that there were flaws in the
original construction that cause it to collapse.