City agencies to widen main roads, sidewalks

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta Public Works Agency and Jakarta Park Agency will jointly redesign Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin in Central Jakarta by widening the roads and sidewalks.

Head of the public works agency Fodly Misbach said on Sunday that the roads would be redesigned to overcome traffic problems compounded by the busway, which was launched on Jan. 15.

The Rp 15 billion (US$1.79 million) project aims to widen the fast lane of Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin into three lanes and the one busway corridor, without felling any trees. Currently, the fast lane comprises two lanes and the busway corridor.

"The project will kick off in March and is expected to finish in May," he said, as quoted by Antara.

The width of each lane will be reduced from three meters to 2.75 meters, while the width of the median strip between the fast and slow lanes will be reduced on either side by 1.5 meters.

"The narrower lane will still be wide enough for vehicles to pass through at an average speed of 60 kilometers per hour," Fodly said.

He promised that no trees in the median strip would be cut down. "The project will only move the edge of the road closer to the trees."

Earlier this week, the TransJakarta Busway management said it planned to add executive-class buses that would stop at a single, designated shelter along the 12.9-kilometer route from Blok M, South Jakarta, to Kota, West Jakarta. This means that the executive buses must be able to overtake regular busway buses, but the current corridor is not wide enough to accommodate this.

Fodly said plans for Jl. Thamrin would be slightly different, as it would follow the park agency's program to widen sidewalks.

Park agency head Sarwo Handayani said the agency was reviewing the need to cut down trees to support the project and added that it would plant 10 trees in other areas for each tree cut down.

The project will begin in May with the widening of the sidewalk in front of Hotel Indonesia.

"We are finishing the design and will have a bid soon."

The agency is financing the project fully, as the hotel cannot contribute to it; instead, the hotel will provide the land for the construction.

The agency has been lobbying the managements of 30 buildings on Jl. Thamrin since last year to widen the sidewalk, but so far only Hotel Nikko, the Japanese Embassy and PT Plaza Indonesia have agreed to the project.

Handayani said many of building managements objected to providing land for the sidewalks and to finance the project, and that they were skeptical of giving land for public facilities.

"Some of them are concerned with security, although we have ensured them that the Jakarta Police would increase measures to prevent crime on the street," she said.

The agency plans to widen the sidewalk to between five and eight meters, from the current width 2.2 to 4.8 meters.

Handayani said each building management was welcome to design its own sidewalk, but must consult the city administration on it.

In the mid-1990s, the administration had requested building managements along the road to plant landscape gardens between the buildings and the sidewalks. However, the bloody 1998 riots prompted the managements to secure their buildings with fences.

Bylaw No. 7/1991 on buildings in Jakarta stipulates that fences for non-residential buildings must be a maximum 1.5 meters in height and allows the building to be seen from outside.