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Home » World » Article

Indonesia to build suspension bridge in earthquake hot
spot

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Mark Forbes Herald Correspondent in
Jakarta
October 5,
2007

INDONESIA plans to build the world's longest suspension bridge across the
earthquake-prone Sunda Strait, passing within 50 kilometres of the active
Krakatoa volcano.

The bridge, traversing 30 kilometres, will link Indonesia's main islands of
Java and Sumatra at an estimated cost of $12 billion.

The governors of Java's Bantenand Sumatra's Lampung provinces have signed a
memorandum to begin designing the bridge with a construction company, Artha
Graha, which is headed by one of Indonesia's richest and most colourful tycoons,
Tommy Winata.

Mr Winata is renowned for his close ties to the former president Soeharto,
and links to the business interests of senior military figures. He has large
investments in entertainment establishments around Jakarta's Chinatown.

The bridge would link Java's Merak Port with Bakauheni in Sumatra, passing
through the islands of Ular, Sangian and Prajurit. At 70 metres high, large
ships would be able to pass underneath.

Experts said the bridge was technologically feasible, but extensive and
expensive safety measures would be essential to withstand earthquakes. Several
quakes measuring more than seven on the Richter scale have struck waters off
Sumatra in recent weeks, and a stronger quake caused a massive tsunami off the
island's west coast in 2004.

A senior design consultant with the Artha Graha consortium, Wangsadinata
Wiratman, said flexible construction materials would be used to protect the
bridge against earthquakes of up to nine on the Richter scale, based on the
planned Messina Strait Bridge in Italy. The Italian bridge was to have boasted
the longest single suspension span in the world - nearly four kilometres - but
the project was abandoned last year because of concerns about rising costs and
earthquakes.

The Sunda Bridge would sit on the "Pacific ring of fire", the meeting place
between the Asian and Australian plates, which is the most earthquake- and
volcano-prone region in the world.

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1191091276340-smh.com.auhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/world/indonesia-to-build-suspension-bridge-in-earthquake-hot-spot/2007/10/04/1191091276340.htmlsmh.com.auSydney
Morning
Herald2007-10-05Indonesia
to build suspension bridge in earthquake hot spotMark Forbes
Herald Correspondent in
Jakarta
World
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