Palembang City Society of South Sumatra (South Sumatra) starting today, Tuesday (8/1) can cross the Musi IV Bridge. The presence of the 1,130-meter bridge is expected to reduce traffic density in the South Sumatra provincial capital.

 "The purpose of the construction of the Musi IV bridge is to overcome traffic congestion in the city of Palembang which often occurs in the Seberang llir region precisely East llll Subdistrict and the opposite region of Ulu, precisely the Seberang Ulu ll Subdistrict," said the Head of the Palembang National Road Implementation Agency (BBPJN) , Saiful Anwar.

On this day, Saiful and Palembang Mayor Harnojoyo conducted a soft launching of the operation of the Musi IV bridge. Also attending the event were the ranks of BBPJN Palembang, Palembang City Government and South Sumatra Provincial Government.

Saiful explained, at this time the traffic flow on the Ampera bridge is very dense with an age that is quite old, so it is necessary to have another bridge that is able to share the burden of vehicles, especially in the city of Palembang.

BBPJN V has conducted a Traffic Impact Analysis (Andalalin) with field testing assisted by the Directorate of Traffic of the South Sumatra Regional Police and Palembang City Police, Palembang Municipal Civil Service Police, the Transportation Office of South Sumatra Province and the Transportation Office of Palembang City.

"The results from Andalalin concluded that there was still congestion in the Seberang Ulu area due to the narrowing of the K.H. Azhari So that we will continue to encourage various parties to work together to complete land acquisition across the solar plexus so that the Musi IV bridge can later be connected directly to Jalan Jend. A. Yani, "he said.

Palembang Mayor Harnojoyo expressed his gratitude for the construction of the Musi IV bridge. He said his initial struggle for the cable stayed bridge type could be realized since the beginning of 2010. The construction of the Musi IV bridge through the State Budget with State Sharia Securities (SBSN) for the 2015-2018 Fiscal Year with a total fund of Rp553.57 billion.

"It is not easy to get this Musi IV bridge, full of struggle. After initial planning in 2010, and it was briefly hit by funding costs, finally the Ministry of Public Works through the Directorate General of Highways was able to bear the construction of this beautiful bridge. And Alhamdulillah after the long wait the bridge was completed and can be felt by the people of Palembang, "he said.

Furthermore Harnojoyo hopes that the community will jointly maintain the condition of the Musi IV bridge.

"We have dreamed of this bridge for a long time, Alhamdulillah, we have now been able to go through it, we hope that the people will guard it together, do not be damaged, do not be doodled, this bridge belongs to all of us," Harnojoyo said.

Before the initial launch, the Musi IV bridge underwent a static and dynamic load test with a load of 1,540 tons with good test results in accordance with the recommendations of the Road and Bridge Tunnel Safety Commission (KKJTJ) in December 2018. In addition, the bridge has also been piloting traffic engineering for five days since January 3, 2019.

Head of Work Unit (Kasatker) of Palembang Metropolitan Road Development, Yudian Budi Krisna said, the bridge with a width of 12 meters has also been equipped with a means of detecting the health of the bridge. With this tool, it can monitor the health of the bridge online and send it to the data center so that early action can be taken immediately if there is damage in one of the systems.

In the report of the head of the committee, Kasatker PJ Metropolitan Palembang, Yudian Budi Krisna, ST, MT said that the Musi IV bridge has a length of 1,130 meters, the width of the bridge is 12 meters, with Cable Stay Extradosed type and U-Girder PCs and is equipped with a bridge health detector who can monitor the health of the bridge online and send it to a data information center so that early action can be taken immediately if damage arises in one of its systems.

"We thank the Mayor and his staff who have helped smooth the Musi IV bridge from the beginning to the present, especially the issue of land acquisition. And to the Head of BBPJN V Palembang who has fully supported us in the implementation of the construction of the Musi IV bridge. And we hope that the construction of a bridge that uses budgeted state budget funds from 2015 to 2018 can be beneficial for the public and road users, "he said. (ALIN / BBPJNV / KompuBM)