PUPR Continues Building Road Drainage to Prevent Flood

Jakarta, InfoPublik - The Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) continue to build drainage on national roads to prevent flood during rainy season.

The Ministry’s Director General of Highways Arie Setiadi Moerwanto explained that drainage construction in rainy season on national roads is crucial, given the nature of asphalt which could be easily damaged when immersed in water. Possible damages isincreasing if the load borne by the road network exceeds the capacity.

Road drainage that is connected with environmental drainage is significant to avoid flooding on the road.

"Road drainage usually was only constructed on the sides of the road, but not connected to existing drainage system. But now, we have already received permission from the Minister (PUPR) to connect it to the environmental drainage,“said PUPR Director General of Highways Arie Setiadi Moerwanto in his office, Monday (2/27).

In current conditions, he added, Indonesia’s logistics transport is still dominated by road transport..  High traffic of heavy vehicles carring excessive load lead to the risk of traffic accidents and road damage.

"This not only causes economic loss, but also increases congestion and high exhaust emissions since road transport is not environmentally friendly," said Arie.

He added that the Ministry of PUPR also encouraged other potential modes of transportation such as railway and river transport to create a mix of logistics transport modes.

" 90 percent of the mobility of people, goods and services are still using highway," he added. (Translator: Wilda Stiana)