Access to Soekarno-Hatta Airport back to normal

It's been a hard weather here in Jakarta for the past week, specially in last Friday. I tried to inform the condition but unfortunately I can't be on line for 24 hours per day. Flood in several areas in Jakarta including the freeway to the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, fog at the airport which closed the airport for about 3.5 hours that day and several flights were transfered to Halim Perdanakusuma Airport are the main issues last week.

In my opinion, the access to the international airport in Jakarta (actually it's located in Tangerang, Banten) is very-very poor. There is only one poor highway and limited main roads in Tangerang that can accommodate the traffic. There are no trains, no LRT/MRT and no fly-overs from/to airport to/from Jakarta City, there are no LRT/MRT. There are buses but they still use the one and only highway.

Indeed it's a bad campaign for Visit Indonesia Year program. Latest news from Jakarta Post said that access to the airport back to normal. That's a good news since I have to go to the airport next Monday.

Traffic on the toll road between Jakarta and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport returned to normal early Monday morning, according to toll operator PT Jasa Marga.

"We opened access to all kinds of vehicles at 5 a.m. this morning. At noon, we started charging the toll again," Jasa Marga corporate secretary Okke Marlina told The Jakarta Post on Monday afternoon.

The Sedyatmo tollway, the main access route from the capital to the airport, had been closed since Friday due to floods, especially along kilometer 26 in Kamal, North Jakarta.

Airport traffic police chief Comr. Sutimin told the Post as of Monday morning part of the road was still flooded with about 15 centimeters of water but that this was not enough to disrupt traffic.

Separately, airport administrator Herry Bhakti also confirmed that it was business as usual at the airport starting Monday morning.

"Everything is back to normal. There are a few delays but nothing is unusual," he said, adding that the problems over the weekend were not caused by the airport's design.

"If several parts of the road and runways were flooded, it was merely caused by the power of nature," he said.

Separately, Okke said Jasa Marga would start adding new lanes from kilometer 24 to 27 of Sedyatmo toll road next month.

"We expect the construction to start in March this year. It is scheduled to finish in a year and it is estimated to cost Rp 260 billion (US$ 26 million)," Okke said.

She said there would be one new elevated lane going in each direction. The lane head from the city to the airport would raised 1.5 meters over the existing mangrove forest.

"I want to clarify, we won't take out the mangrove forest. We will just build columns on it," Okke said.

"The construction won't disturb the traffic in the existing lanes," she said.

Okke said while waiting for the new lanes to be completed, Jasa Marga would coordinate with the city's public works agency to improve drainage along the toll road.

"What happened on Friday was the water in Tanjungan creek in Kamal was intercepted by the sea water in the north. Therefore, the water from the city came back south, flooding the toll road," she said.

In November, a high tide cut off the airport toll road. The operator now has 14 pumps to deal with flooding, but during Friday's flood, the water came from both the north and south and was too much for the pumps to handle.

The closure of the airport toll road and the delays of more than 200 flights between Friday and Sunday cost airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II Rp 5.3 billion.

PT Angkasa Pura president director Eddie Hayoto said the airport operator lost landing and take-off fees from the airlines.

Source: Official Website of Ministry of Culture and Tourism

Posted in: Airports in Indonesia,Banten,Jakarta