T

he city has resumed construction on the elevated highway connecting Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta and Tanah Abang in Central Jakarta.

Public Works Agency head Manggas Rudy Siahaan said the heavy equipment needed to support the construction work had arrived from Taiwan two weeks ago, so the project was expected to conclude in less than three months'€™ time.

'€œThis project is scheduled to finish by the end of November, but we have asked them [the construction company] to expedite the work because of the length of time this project has taken,'€ he told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Wednesday.

He said workers were now in the middle of a shoring process that would support the concrete. The concrete columns were also ready to be lifted, he added.

Manggas said the biggest challenge the project had faced was the narrow road near Le Meridien Hotel and Wisma Metropolitan. In addition, the busy traffic in the area meant that construction work was only allowed between 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

'€œWe hope Jakartans can be patient because this project has faced difficulties,'€ he said.

The construction of the 3.5-kilometer (km) elevated non-toll road, which many dubbed the Casablanca elevated road as it spanned through Casablanca in South Jakarta, was halted in March due to budgetary issues.

The Rp 900 billion (US$92.65 million) project was supposedly completed by 2012, but contractor PT Istana Karya was unable to finish the remaining 700-meter road section on Jl. KH Mas Mansyur as the city had not transferred the funds.

Moreover, the city suspended the project for evaluation and an audit by the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) and Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) because it was behind schedule.

The budget issue was settled in May as the city allocated Rp 64 billion from the 2013 budget to the completion of the section above Jl. Mas Mansyur. At that time, Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo wanted the road to be completed by the end of June.

However, construction could not immediately resume as the contractor was still waiting for the heavy equipment from Taiwan.

The Casablanca elevated road and the completed 4.8 km Antasari elevated road '€” the new non-toll overpass between Jl. Antasari and Blok M, South Jakarta, which was launched earlier this year '€” were both initiated by then governor Fauzi Bowo in 2010.

His administration believed that new roads were necessary to boost the ratio of road area to the total area of the city, which stood at 6.2 percent.

Deputy Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama earlier expressed his disapproval of non-toll overpass projects, saying that they were not a solution to the city'€™s traffic issues.

'€œYou can see severe traffic jams despite the Antasari overpass. What we actually need is public transportation,'€ Basuki said.