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Jakarta Bridge Breaks Apart In the Middle of Construction
Dofa Fasila | December 12, 2011

A worker dismantles a bridge that collapsed in North Jakarta on Sunday morning. (Antara Photo/Reno Esnir) A worker dismantles a bridge that collapsed in North Jakarta on Sunday morning. (Antara Photo/Reno Esnir)
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munkerama
5:40pm Dec 12, 2011

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, who visited the site, said the contractor was responsible for the incident and “should repair the bridge with the same quality and on time as scheduled.”

i'll be expecting the new story in a few months when they build it again to the same standard as this one

RuleBritannia
4:56pm Dec 12, 2011

Look on the bright side. At least the usual shoddy construction with sub-standard materials and poor workmanship due to the budget being fleeced by all the sticky fingers has been exposed before people started driving over it. By the way - does anyone remember the story about the houses being built for the lawmakers? 80% of the budget was lost through the contracts being sold on again and again - was anyone ever convicted? Many stories like this just disappear

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For the fourth time in a little over a month, a bridge has fallen, this time in North Jakarta. Part of a bridge under construction linking Marunda to Cilincing collapsed in the early hours of Sunday. There were no casualties.

Six precast concrete beams that had just been installed, each more than 30 meters long, 1.6 meters thick and 0.7 meters wide, fell about five meters.

Onasis Chelerides, field manager of the bridge’s contractor, Bunga Tanjung Raya, said all six parallel beams collapsed as the sixth one was being installed.

“When the sling was released from the beam, it suddenly went to one side and hit the neighboring beam, causing all six beams to fall,” Onasis said.

He speculated that the beams were not strong enough to resist the load because they had not been cured long enough, and he estimated that the accident would cost Rp 750 million ($83,000).

Ery Basworo, the head of Jakarta’s Public Works Office said the construction contractor will fully bear the losses.

“We instructed the contractor to clean up the collapsed beams and replace them with new ones,” Ery said.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, who visited the site, said the contractor was responsible for the incident and “should repair the bridge with the same quality and on time as scheduled.”

Other concrete beams that have yet to be installed will be inspected to ensure that they meet specifications, Fauzi added.

The project was expected to be completed by May 2012, Ery said.

The bridge collapse in Jakarta followed the collapse a 10-year-old suspension bridge in Kutai Kartanegara district, East Kalimantan, on Nov. 26 that killed at least 21 people.

Some 39 people were injured during the accident, while the whereabouts of 15 are still unknown. They are believed to have perished in the incident.

Another bridge, a 15-year-old, 50-meter concrete span over the Balim Pike River in Wamena, Papua, collapsed on Thursday but was not severed. The bridge’s midsection fell to the level of the water, but pedestrians and motorcyclists were still allowed to use it.

Earlier in November, a Rp 900 million bridge in South Sumatra connecting the villages of Bandarjaya and Sungai Putih also collapsed. Three months before that, the larger, Rp 21.4 billion Ulak Kembang bridge collapsed, resulting in two deaths.

On Sunday near the fallen Mahakam II bridge in East Kalimantan, six traditional divers continued to look for cars and any victims trapped inside them. They began their search after the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) halted its own search efforts on Saturday.

Ramli, one of the divers, said they could dive up to 40 meters below the river’s surface but added that the water current underneath was strong.

Additional reporting from Antara