The Directorate General (DG) of Bina Marga began handling slopes on the Kebon Kopi road on the Palu-Parigi section in Central Sulawesi. The handling was marked by the signing of two work packages with a total value of Rp197.96 billion today, Friday (11/10) at the Directorate General of Highways Office in Jakarta. The contract signature was witnessed directly by the Director General (Dirjen) of Bina Marga Arie Setiadi Moerwanto, Director of Road Development Achmad Gani Ghazali Akman and Director of Iwan Zarkasi Bridge.

The first work package worth Rp123.29 billion for the reconstruction and handling of slopes in the Nupabomba-Kebon Kopi-Toboli I. The winning contractor is the joint operation between PT Widya Sapta Contractor-PT Citra Kurnia Waway-PT Saranamukti Puterasejati for handling along 6 Km.

Head of the Palu National Road Implementation Agency (BPJN) XIV Akhmad Cahyadi said the second package worth Rp74.67 billion was allocated for similar work on the Tawaeli-Nupabomba-Kebon Kopi-Toboli section with a length of 3.3 Km. The executor is PT Tunggal Mandiri Jaya. The two work packages are 2017-2018 multi-year jobs.

"The frequent landslides on the Kebon Kopi road section have indeed made this a longstanding national issue. In the image of the people of Central Sulawesi, passing Kebon Kopi is going through something terrible, because they have to anticipate bringing food, bringing a jack to anticipate if at any time of a landslide so they cannot return or continue the journey, "said Cahyadi.

Because it is a national issue, the handling of the Kebon Kopi segment is even included in the list of national strategic projects mentioned in Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 3 of 2016 was later revised in Perpres No. 58 of 2017. The Head of BPJN XIV acknowledged that the handling of the section took a long process from design planning to technology selection which was considered appropriate. Handling is carried out on slopes with a potential for landslides through sloping cuts to make it more gentle.

"We will involve the Center for Road and Bridge Research and Development of the Ministry of PUPR, as well as geologists and geothermal experts from campuses such as UGM, ITB, Undip," he continued.

Cahyadi added that next month it also plans to auction off two other Kebon Kopi toll road slope handling packages, especially for the multi-year packages for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. So next year there will be four work packages that are carried out in parallel for the Palu-Parigi connecting road. (Kompu BM)