Major delays as highway closed
Oyos Saroso HN, The Jakarta Post, Bandar Lampung, Lampung
The highway connecting Lampung and neighboring provinces in Sumatra was closed on Wednesday for renovations that will last 10 days, as a section of the main road has been damaged following days of heavy rain.
The closure has forced the local transportation authorities to reroute vehicles traversing the Sumatran highway to or from Lampung's Bakauheni ferry port.
The vehicles now have to take one of three alternative routes: First, via Simpang Babatan, Pasar Tanjungan and Pasar Umbulkates to Bakauheni; second, via Umbulbayur, Tanjung Bintang and Jl. Soekarno Hatta to Bandar Lampung; third, via Labuhan Maringgai (East Lampung Timur), Sukadana, Kotagajah and Gunung Sugih to Bandar Lampung.
The closure was made after a water channel, under a section of the road in the hamlet of Umbul Kidul in Pardasuka village, South Lampung, were badly damaged after being hit by floodwaters.
The water channels, some 24 kilometers from Bakauheni, were swept away by floodwaters triggered by days of heavy rain.
There are at least 20 water channels along the 90-kilometer road between Bakauheni and the provincial capital, Bandar Lampung. They were all in poor physical condition due to a lack of maintenance by the local public works office.
However, the three alternative routes cannot be used by large trucks loaded with more than 20 tons of cargo, because there are several emergency bridges that they cannot use.
Large trucks have been advised to reduce their loads in order to be able to use the three alternative routes.
This has forced drivers to park large trucks at emergency parking lots along the Bandar Lampung to Bakauheni route.
To solve the problem, the local administration opened on Wednesday Panjang container port, the largest in Sumatra, for large trucks that were heading for the ferry to Merak port, Serang, Banten.
"If we cross via Panjang, there is a 100 percent increase in transportation costs because the distance between the port and Merak is farther than that between Bakauheni and Merak," complained Warsit, 37, the driver of a truck carrying bananas from Lampung to the main Pasar Induk market in Kramatjati, East Jakarta.
Sulton, 32, another truck driver, said he had to pay Rp 1 million (US$117) in ferry fares from Panjang to Merak, a distance of about 54 miles. "Meanwhile, to cross via Bakauheni, it costs only Rp 350,000."
He acknowledged he had to cover the increase in transportation cost, otherwise he would not be able to return to Jakarta.
A similar grievance was expressed by another driver, Rosidi, 40, who said he had to pay Rp 950,000 to take his truck to Merak from Panjang. Normally, he paid only Rp 250,000 to cross via Bakauheni.
Deputy head of Lampung transportation office Haryo Setmiko said truck drivers were charged Rp 950,000 to Rp 1.5 million per truckload from Panjang to Merak.
"The charge is usual because the distance between Panjang and Merak is greater -- 54 miles -- while Bakauheni to Merak is only 15 miles," he argued.
Normally, it takes two to three hours for a passenger ferry to sail from Bakauheni to Merak, and seven to nine hours via Panjang.
Setmiko said his office had coordinated with PT ASDP, the operator of Bakauheni port, to open Panjang for large trucks.
"Starting Wednesday, two ferries will operate to serve the Panjang to Merak route. The two -- the Duta Banten and Mitra Nusantara -- are being provided to carry trucks up to 15 tons fully loaded," he said.
However it was around 2:30 p.m. before the two ferries arrived at Panjang, where some 1,000 trucks had been waiting for hours to make the crossing.
Setmiko advised public buses and private vehicles to continue to cross via Bakauheni port.