Repair Delayed, Bridges In Grobogan Ambrol Regency Hit By River Currents

Residents see a bridge that collapsed due to being hit by the Jajar River in Anggaswangi Village, Godong, Grobogan, Central Java (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The bridge in Anggaswangi Village, Godong District, Grobogan Regency, Central Java, collapsed after being hit by the swift current of the Jajar River. This is following the increased water discharge due to high rainfall.

"The rapid flow of the Jajar River caused the bridge that connects Anggaswangi Village to Guji Village and other villages to collapse on Thursday, December 17 at around 17.00 WIB. Luckily there were no casualties," said the head of the district's Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) daily. Grobogan Endang Sulistyoningsih in Grobogan, reported by Antara, Friday, December 18.

Previously, he said, the bridge was intended to be repaired by the Pemali Juana Center in conjunction with the normalization of the local river. The condition of the bridge cannot be passed by vehicles with heavy loads because of its support for small vehicles.

The Head of Desa Anggaswangi Sukoco confirmed that the bridge was intended to be repaired by the Pemali Juana Center along with the normalization program scheduled for 2021.

"Initially, the bridge with a length of around 25 meters was intended to be dismantled earlier. However, because there was no emergency bridge yet, we asked that it be demolished after an emergency bridge was established. It turned out that it had been washed away by the river," he said.

He hopes that in the near future an emergency bridge will be built so that local villagers can pass it, including residents of Guci and Werdoyo Villages, whose daily activities use the bridge.

During the harvest season, the bridge is also very useful for farmers to transport their crops to the mill.

Information from the bridge construction consultant, he said, was that construction would only begin in March 2021. When an emergency bridge was not yet available, residents who usually traveled through the bridge were forced to look for alternative routes with a distance of 2-3 kilometers.