Broken crane causes massive traffic snarl

Mustaqim Adamrah ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 07/19/2008 11:02 AM  |  City

TRAFFIC JAM (JP/J. Adiguna)A massive traffic jam snarled Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta, early Friday morning after a crane taking down a billboard in Duku Atas broke down, blocking the street.

First Brig. Dwi Wicaksono, an officer at the Jakarta Police's Traffic Management Center, said the traffic backup reached from Dukuh Atas to Senayan, a distance of about four kilometers.

"Congestion, starting at 5:30 a.m., stretched from Dukuh Atas to Senayan. It affected other streets nearby," the officer said, adding that traffic returned to normal around 10:30 a.m.

City Secretary Muhayat said at City Hall the traffic was caused by a crane that experienced technical troubles.

Jakarta Revenue Agency head Reynalda Madjid said the crane was being used to dismantle a billboard whose advertising license had expired.

"The hydraulic system on the crane failed. We tried to fix it in the field, but were unable," Reynalda said at a press conference at City Hall in the afternoon.

He said the agency rented the crane for the work, and had no way to determining beforehand whether it was in proper working order.

"It turned out that we had to get parts at Tanjung Priok (in North Jakarta) to fix the problem," he said.

He said the agency began the work on Thursday at 11 p.m., after traffic had eased, and expected to have it finished by 5 a.m. on Friday.

"But the crane, which we rented, malfunctioned at 4 a.m.," Reynalda said. "We finally finished everything at 10:30 a.m. and traffic was back to normal by 11:30 a.m."

Jakarta Property Management and Control Agency head Hari Sasongko said the owner of the billboard should have dismantled it "without waiting for city agencies to act, as we ordered"

An official at the revenue agency, Iwan Jumhana, said the 200-square-meter billboard, which advertises state lender Bank Negara Indonesia, was owned by PT Patria Mega Komunika.

"The company's advertising license expired July 14 this year and it has not paid its Rp 900 million (US$98,350) in annual advertising taxes since last July," he said.

Reynalda said three other billboards in the same area with expired licenses would be taken down in the near future.

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