(12/23/2011)
Work commenced on Wednesday, December 21, 2011on Bali’s first underpass at Kuta’s Dewa Ruci Monument also know as Simpang Siur.
The total project is estimated to need18 months to complete at a project cost of Rp. 139.19 billion (US$15.5 million).
Quoted in Bali Post, the head of the Agency charged with National Roadway Construction for the province, Susalit Alius, said the interchange represents the main access to for the rest of the island for Bali’s airport and the Nusa Dua tourism area. Depicting the access point as currently overloaded, Alius said the roadway must be improved by facilitating traffic flows via an underpass.
An initial feasibility study for the project was completed in 2007, with revisions undertaken in 2008 and 2010. The scope of work for the project include the construction of a box culvert, frontage, U-turn and reinforcement of the Dewa Ruci monument using corrugated sheet piles.
Susalit explained: “The underpass will use secant pile button construction. The top height clearance will measure 5.3 meters with a total length of 38 meters."
The Minister of Public Works, Djoko Kirmanto, attending the ground-breaking for the new underpass said, “I hope the construction of the underpass will relieve traffic congestion in Kuta, especially in the area surrounding the Dewa Ruci monument.”
According to Kirmanto, the construction of the underpass is crucial to providing access to Bali’s tourism areas and rest of Bali as a whole.
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