Motorcycles pass a section of the Batang-Gringsing toll road under construction in Batang regency, Central Java, on Monday (12/6). The section is now being cleaned to meet the target of operating 10 days ahead of the Idul Fitri holiday. The toll road, which is still under construction, will connect Brebes and Gringsing, covering a distance of 110 kilometers.
The road work crews do heavy work day and night, rain or shine, to extend the reach of toll roads. The roads they build will help motorists reach their loved ones and their hometowns during the Idul Fitri holidays at the end of the Ramadhan fasting month.
The toll road projects have also helped workers like Suparto, 48, return to their hometowns. A month ago, Suparto left his old job as a bajaj (three-wheeled taxi) driver in Jakarta and returned to his hometown of Gembongdadi in Suradadi district, Tegal regency, Central Java.
He chose to work on the Pejagan-Pemalang Toll Road project because he knew that working as a day-rate worker on the toll roads would give him better financial certainty. “In Jakarta, I worked odd jobs, including as a bajaj driver. But, earning money in Jakarta is becoming harder and harder,” he said.
During an interview on a particularly hot day, Suparto was sweeping the sides of a bridge near Karangjati Exit on the Pejagan-Pemalang toll road. He was focused on cleaning the road, making sure that not a single particle of dust or dirt was left on the road.
As a day-rate worker, Suparto does anything and everything for a daily wage of Rp 70,000 (US$5.26). During installation of a lean concrete (LC) layer or a sub-grade layer, he cleaned up scattered soil. After the LC layer was completed, he cleaned it of cement dust.
Suparto works five hours a day on average. In the last few days, his working hours were increased by one or two hours every day. This is because the toll road project is being accelerated so that motorists can use it 10 days before Idul Fitri.
In eastern Java, roadwork crews are speeding up construction of the Surabaya-Mojokerto toll road. Under the scorching heat of the sun, they divide jobs. Some pour concrete, some carry away mounds of soil, some dredge the earth, some monitor daily progress, and others bring food.
Everyone works together to complete the toll road project that has been ongoing since 1994. There is no time to waste. A truck carting earth can make up to 20 return trips to the construction site in a day. Workers use the bucket of an excavator just to bring meals to their fellow workers.
“Going there on foot requires us to take the long way around. If we walk on the ground, it is mushy,” said excavator driver Prayitno.
Over the past three months, crews have been working for longer hours, from between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. originally and until midnight currently. Without these longer hours, it would be difficult to achieve the target date for completion. “I am not fasting, as the job requires a lot of energy,” said worker Abdul Ghafur, 32.
A week earlier, when Kompas took a stroll on the toll road, a 9-meter-high hill was still jutting out from the middle of the toll road construction site. Now, the hill is split in half, so that casting work can be done to connect the toll road.
PT Jasamarga Surabaya-Mojokerto director of technique and operation Ari Wibowo said that the work was able to be maximized in May, or one month ahead of the operational target. Ideally, three months would be needed to complete all work, from dredging the ground to laying high-quality rigid concrete. “Since the toll road construction started in 1994, 100 percent land clearance was achieved only this year,” he said.
Their “enemy” is rain, which makes their jobs far more difficult. The soil turns muddy, making it difficult to dredge. It is also hard for vehicles to drive over muddy ground. “We even use rain shamans, but it does not work,” Ari said.
In Klodran village, Karanganyar, Central Java, where a gate for the Solo-Ngawi toll road is located, Sukiyem, 57, and a few other workers are completing construction on a culvert under the toll road. Sukiyem has been working with her husband Suhardi, 64, on the toll road project for the past five months.
Previously, Sukiyem was a farm worker. Outside of the planting season, she occasionally accepts offers to prepare mixes of cement and sand at a daily wage of Rp 60,000. Despite this being lower than her farming wage of between Rp 70,000 and Rp 80,000 a day, she said she was grateful that she could still get work.
Apart from the toll road construction, the construction of four flyovers between Pejagan and Bumiayu was also accelerated. The budget is Rp 350 billion. The Brebes-Gringsing toll road alone needs at least Rp 90 billion to complete.
After the exodus period finishes at the end of the Idul Fitri holiday season, the LC road will be dismantled.
Transportation expert from Semarang’s Soegijapranata Catholic University, Djoko Setijowarno, said that the government’s swift work in extending toll roads and increasing road capacity should be appreciated. In two or three years, these toll roads would be able to reduce severe traffic jams during the exodus period.
However, traffic jams are predicted to only worsen over the next four or five years. The toll roads will not resolve the fundamental problem at the root of Idul Fitri traffic jams. Current data from the Transportation Ministry showed that the number of vehicles, both cars and motorbikes, on the roads during last year’s Idul Fitri exodus was double that in 2013.
In 2013, 1.513 million cars and 2.043 million motorbikes traveled on roadsfor the annual exodus. During the 2016 exodus, 3.057 million cars and 5.135 million motorbikes were on the roads.
“No matter the length of roads that are built, it can never outpace the growth of the volume of vehicles on the streets. If the government does not expand mass transportation services from Jakarta to outlying regions and improve regional public transportation, exodus-period traffic jams will only grow worse every year” Djoko said.
(RHAMA PURNAJATI, ADITYA P PERDANA, ERWIN EDHI P, CAESAR ALEXEY, IQBAL BASYARI, AMBROSIUS HARTO)
