Bengkulu Provincial Government Moves Quickly To Handle The Collapsed Nine Liku Road

The national road located in the Liku Sembilan Area, Taba Penanjung Bengkulu Tengah District, collapsed (ANTARA/HO-Personal Document)

BENGKULU - The Bengkulu Provincial Government is moving quickly to handle the national road connecting the west from and to the central route of Sumatra Island in Central Bengkulu Regency, Bengkulu Province.

"That's a national road, we (Pemprov) when we saw a video of the collapse of the road in Liku Sembilan immediately coordinated with the National Road Implementation Center, we make sure this year is handled immediately," said Head of the Bengkulu Province PUPR Service Tejo Suroso as reported by ANTARA, Saturday, January 13.

The road, which is located in the Liku Sembilan Area, Taba Penanjung Bengkulu Tengah District, collapsed today.

The damage to the national road is believed to be due to high rainfall, causing part of the road to collapse due to landslides.

In the last few days, some areas in the province nicknamed Bumi Raflesia have indeed rained heavily throughout the day, including in the Liku Sembilan area, Taba Penanjung District. Central Bengkulu Regency Bengkulu Province.

The Liku Sembilan area is part of a national road that runs along the slopes of the Bukit Barisan ranks. The road is flanked by a hill cliff wall and a ravine on the opposite side.

When the rainfall was high, a number of national roads from Bengkulu City to the central route of Sumatra Island in Lubuk Linggau City, South Sumatra Province were prone to landslides or collapsed.

This time, the Liku Sembilan area collapsed more or less a dozen meters and this endangered motorists.

Currently, the authorities have imposed an opening and closing of the one-way road so that there will be no long traffic jams on the section.

Actually, the central government has planned to build a connecting toll road from Bengkulu City to Lubuk Linggau. By mid-2023, President Joko Widodo has inaugurated 1 in 3 completed toll sections.

When section 1 and 2 are completely completed, access to and from Bengkulu in the future will be better, effective and efficient. Also, users will also be more comfortable, especially considering the vulnerability of national roads, one of which is such as landslides and collapsed roads.

The Bengkulu-Lubuk Linggau toll road is eagerly awaited by road users from and to Bengkulu. This toll road can shorten the travel time from what is usually around 5-6 hours to 40-50 minutes, low operational costs and can minimize the potential for driver vulnerability from various incidents, one of which is landslides.

However, currently section 1 and 2 toll roads have not been built, the construction that is currently taking place is in the rest area on section 3 toll roads. However, the Bengkulu Provincial Government believes that the central government will continue to build toll roads for sections 1 and 2 in 2024 or 2025.