KULON PROGO (BINA MARGA) - The construction of the New Yogyakarta International Airport (NYIA), Temon District, Kulon Progo Regency, Yogyakarta Special Province will be integrated with other infrastructure, such as railroad and National Roads.

In addition the Government is targeting the first phase of the new airport to be operational next month (April 2019) to serve international flights. In connection with that NYIA Underpass (UP) which is being worked on by the Directorate General of Highways, the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing can be partially utilized when the airport is operational next month.

"For information, at the soft opening of the airport in April, our underpasses will have been covered 300 meters from a total of 1 km. The 300 meters section that can be used temporarily will connect the parking lot to the airport terminal. As a percentage, we may have already handled 80%," said the UP NYIA Development Commitment Making Officer, M. Syidik ??Hidayat from the National Center for Implementation of National Road VII, when met at the site on Saturday afternoon (23/03).

Based on the work plan, UP NYIA is indeed located under the parking lot and airport terminal, stretching from west to east under the ground. Built with 11 zoning jobs with a total of 38 segments (box). The 300 meter distance is in the three priority zones, namely zone III (four segments), VI (two segments), and IX (four segments).

Syidik ??added that the underpass was built because the NYIA Airport was designed on the existing national road on the South Coast of the South Coast of the Purworejo - Yogyakarta section.

So since November last year the construction of an underpass to maintain the National Road alignment and support NYIA access began. Swallow a fee of Rp. 293 Billion, UP NYIA was built along 1.3 km consisting of 110 meters inlet / outlet west side towards Purworejo, closed underpass 1095 meters, and 100 meters inlet / outlet on the east side of Yogyakarta direction.

The width of both inlet / outlet is 7.85 km with rigid pavement. While the clearance is closed with a box structure (segment) as high as 5.2 meters and a side width of 18.4 meters with a transverse girder. This transverse girder serves as a cover for the underpass.

Syidik ??said the use of girders as underpass covers was indeed unusual. "But structurally we need it (girders) to accommodate the underpass width of 18.4 meters," he explained.

UP NYIA is designed to be more spacious, that is, without the structure of the column or middle wall so that more lanes and higher traffic capacity "Imagine 1 kilometer closed, stuffy, yeah, if it's straight, it's not a problem, but it's turning and turning. With that much width, we can already see the edges. More relieved is more comfortable," Syidik ??said.

The overall underpass construction is targeted to be completed in December 2019. (Ian)