Rest Areas Blamed for Traffic Jams During Eid Exodus, Public Works Minister Highlights Narrow Access at KM 57 and 62

Traffic build-ups at rest areas have emerged as a key focus in the evaluation of the 2026 Eid exodus traffic flow. The government has determined that density at several points is not solely due to high vehicle volumes but also inadequate entry access designs.

This was stated by Public Works Minister Dody Hanggodo. He revealed that preliminary evaluations indicate critical issues at the KM 57 and KM 62 rest areas in Cikampek, which frequently experience long queues spilling onto the toll road carriageway.

“If the preliminary evaluation is correct, the main problem during the initial Eid exodus flow was at the rest areas at KM 57 and KM 62. The entry lanes there are too narrow, so we may need to rearrange them,” he said during an inspection of the Kalilangkung Toll Road in Semarang, Central Java, on Saturday, 28 March 2026.

According to Dody, the narrow entry access causes slowdowns in vehicle flow, especially when the number of holiday travellers surges sharply. This condition leads to congestion that could be avoided with better planning.

“So after the return flow and Eid exodus are completed, we will form a special team to rearrange specifically these two rest areas first,” he stated.

The evaluation will not stop there but will be extended to other rest areas gradually. “Then gradually, after these two rest areas are sorted, we will rearrange them. Our hope is that in the future during Christmas-New Year holidays and next year’s Eid, there will be no more build-ups at rest areas 57 and 62,” he explained.

Additionally, Dody highlighted type B rest areas that lack fuel refilling facilities as another contributing factor to density. These types of rest areas are deemed insufficient to meet the needs of large numbers of travellers.

“Rest areas that have been the biggest burden so far, especially class B ones without petrol stations, we also need to rearrange them so that when the toll road volume is very high during Eid or Christmas-New Year flows, there are no visitor build-ups for toll road users at the roadside edges.”