T

he long-expected Semanggi cloverleaf interchange is set to be completed by the middle of this year, with 70 percent of the construction having been completed.

Built to reduce traffic congestion at the severely crowded Semanggi intersection on Jl. Gatot Subroto, Central Jakarta, the cloverleaf interchange will connect to several main streets in the city, such as Jl. Jendral Sudirman and Jl. MH Thamrin.

As the contractor of the interchange, state-owned construction firm Wijaya Karya (Wika) was optimistic that it could start operating in August.

Wika corporate secretary Suradi Wongso Suwarno told The Jakarta Post on Friday that 70 percent of the construction had been completed.

“By the end of July, the construction will be finished. By August, the interchange should be operational,” he said.

The interchange will have two overpasses; the first one connecting Slipi, West Jakarta, to Blok M, South Jakarta, and the second overpass to connect Cawang, East Jakarta, to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle (Bundaran HI) in Central Jakarta.

The first overpass will consist of two elevated roads: one in front of Plaza Semanggi and one in front of the Jakarta police headquarters.

The second overpass will also consist of two elevated roads: one in front of Hotel Sultan and one in front of Wisma Mulia.

The elevated roads for the second pass are expected to be finished in the coming weeks as the construction has been going smoothly, according to Suradi.

It was only hampered by a bit by traffic congestion around the Semanggi intersection, which had limited the working space of the workers.

Therefore, heavy work, such as installing a box girder, was done from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. when there was less traffic.

At the latest, the construction will be finished before the country’s 72nd Independence Day on Aug. 17, according to Jakarta Bina Marga Agency’s intersection construction director Hananto Krisna.

“Our plan was to finish the construction on the proclamation day,” he said. “And it is on schedule as our initial plan was to complete it in August and we have been optimistic with that since the beginning.”

Set to join the National Monument (Monas) as another icon of Jakarta, the Semanggi interchange will be decorated with special lights to give the appearance of a cloverleaf, locally known as semanggi. The lights will be controlled from the Jakarta Smart City Lounge at City Hall.

In addition, the gate of the overpass will be decorated with the Betawi motif of Gigi Balang while the overpass fence will be decorated with a cloverleaf motif, according to Hananto.

The construction was conducted not only by Wika but also by Japanese property management firm Mori Building Company under its local subsidiary PT Mitra Panca Persada. The construction of the 1.8 kilometer-long interchange cost Rp 360 billion (US$27 million).

Mori Building Company funded the construction of the elevated roads in return for an increased building floor coefficient (KLB), the standard for a building’s total maximum size permitted on a given area.

Incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama earlier said that the Semanggi interchange could reduce traffic congestion around the area by at least 30 percent.