Many Old Iron Channels Have Been Eroded, Rano Karno Acknowledges that Amblas Roads Can Happen Again in Jakarta 

DKI Jakarta Deputy Governor Rano Karno

JAKARTA - Deputy Governor of DKI Jakarta Rano Karno admitted that the slippery road incident, which occurred on Lenteng Agung Highway, South Jakarta, has the potential to be repeated at other points.

Because, there are still many corrugated steel or armco water channels in Jakarta that are decades old and prone to damage.

This was conveyed by Rano when he directly reviewed the location of the damaged road repair in Lenteng Agung which is now back to being able to be passed by vehicles after working for several days.

"So this is a type of iron that has been around for quite some time, maybe more than 30 years. When I was asked where, I said I did not deny that it would happen again in Jakarta (the road would collapse) because there were so many armco-armco in Jakarta also in the same condition (namely) old, old, it must be brittle if the iron," said Rano, Tuesday, June 2.

According to Rano, the aging underground infrastructure condition is not only in the armco channel. He admitted that he had received information about some of the water pipe networks in Jakarta that had not been replaced for decades to hundreds of years.

Therefore, the DKI Provincial Government has begun to inventory the points that use the armco channel to anticipate the potential for similar damage in the future.

"That's why I just asked if it had started yet, where the points (potentially) occurred. Because if it happens again, we know immediately," said Rano.

Although he reminded of the potential for similar incidents, Rano emphasized that the improvement of the dilapidated road in Lenteng Agung was faster than expected. The road, which is the main link between Jakarta and Depok, has now been reopened to traffic.

"Today I directly reviewed the location of the repair of the channel whose road body had collapsed. I was very surprised, in 5 days this road can be passed with a very good condition," he said.

Rano admitted that he had asked the Road Construction Service to re-coat the asphalt. However, after seeing the results of the work in the field, this step was considered unnecessary.

"I even asked the Road Construction Service to layer it again with asphalt but seeing this (after being repaired) is not necessary, which means that this is a very good condition," he said.

During the review, Rano also revealed the technical challenges faced by the government if similar damage occurred in other locations. One of them is because the damaged channel in Lenteng Agung is connected to the flow from the University of Indonesia (UI) Dam and is below the railway line.

"The problem is, the channel is under the railway tracks. The question is, if something happens under the railway tracks, how do you do it? That's what I asked. I don't want to cover it up and it doesn't mean we have to be afraid, but it means we anticipate," said Rano.

According to him, this condition makes the repair process impossible to be carried out by the usual excavation and requires a special construction method.

When asked about other locations that were considered vulnerable to similar damage, Rano admitted that the DKI Provincial Government was still conducting data collection.

"We are still inventorying, yes we are still inventorying. Actually, if you want to know how many are in PAM, if there is a mapping because there are already channels for that. But if this one is still being inventoried," he added.