There Are 10 Million Bamboos Used As Matras Toll Roads 'Atas Laut' Semarang-Demak

Bamboo for the road (Photo: KPUPR)

JAKARTA - Bambu is one of the materials used in the construction of the Semarang-Demak Toll Road, especially for Section 1 Semarang-Sayung.

Bamboos are assembled and arranged in such a way to increase the carrying capacity of the ground at the construction site as a mattress system.

The reason is, the section which stretches for 10.64 kilometers (km) is above the sea. Different from Section 2 Sayung-Demak along 16.31 km which stands on land.

Quoted from the official website of the Toll Road Regulatory Agency (BPJT) of the Ministry of PUPR on Tuesday, May 14, the Semarang-Demak Toll Road will be integrated with a sea embankment, in which the structure of the pile above the sea is reinforced by a 17-layer bamboo mattress.

Previously, the Materials Center and Building Structure of the Directorate of Settlement Engineering and Housing Engineering at the Directorate General of Human Settlements had carried out testing to measure the feasibility of using bamboo.

"The test was carried out to prepare bamboo materials that will be used as mattress construction to speed up the consolidation time on land at the construction site of the Semarang-Demak Toll Road," said BPJT statement.

Currently, construction work on the 1B package that is above sea along about 10 km uses bamboo mattresses as a foundation and it takes about 10 million bamboo sticks to be owned by 1,500 skilled workers.

"The bamboo comes from Wonogiri, Magelang and Purworejo, with special criteria, namely straight with a length of 8 meters and a diameter of between 8-10 cm," he said.

The use of bamboo mattresses not only serves as a foundation, but also contributes to the sustainability of the marine ecosystem.

Bamboo, which has been used as a mattress, will later be submerged and become part of coral reefs, as well as adding structural strength under water.