Wahyu Aji Syahputra, a student of the Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia (FTUI) class 2019, won Second Place in the Civil Engineering Insight and Creation Competition (CESTION). Wahyu won the title thanks to alternative solutions for the development of transportation infrastructure in underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost (3T) areas of Indonesia. CESTION is an Essay Writing and Road Modeling Contest in a series of Civil in Action events held by Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM).
“In the essay that was presented, I gave an idea in the form of a solution that can be applied to develop transportation infrastructure in Indonesia’s 3T area. As a case study, I chose Elpaputih District, Maluku, which has an inadequate transportation system and road conditions. This is very unfortunate because this area has abundant availability of forest and marine natural resources. It is hoped that transportation planning in the area can help local community activities, especially in terms of the population’s economy,” said Wahyu Aji.
The main natural wealth in Elpaputih, Maluku consists of marine and forest products. Elpaputih’s production forest area produces meranti wood, gopassa, ironwood, ebony, teak, sandalwood, resin, rattan, eucalyptus, and various types of orchids. Meanwhile, the Elpaputih Sea produces grouper, baronang fish, tiger prawns, white shrimp, sea cucumbers, and seaweed. Elpaputih residents have difficulty selling these local commodities due to inadequate transportation access.
“The road modeling of the transportation system is designed by taking into account the geographical conditions of the Elpaputih area, which has quite a large forest area and extreme land conditions, so it requires a special construction method that is suitable. The road model that I designed has four traces. Each track has a different length according to field conditions and the total length of the track is 4.37 km,” said Wahyu Aji regarding the design of the road model.
Each route is selected and designed based on the contours of the land with a flat elevation and the utilization of forest land use so that no eviction is required in the road construction process. Later, the route will be in the form of horizontal and vertical alignment with the application of a two-way traffic system as an optimization of the existing transportation system.
The Dean of FTUI, Prof. Dr. Heri Hermansyah, ST., M.Eng., IPU hopes that the road modeling designed by Wahyu Aji will be implemented and will have a positive impact on the region and community of Elpaputih, Maluku. “The positive impact is not only in the form of improving the community’s economy, but this road modeling also provides superior benefits and has an impact on the environment and better regional spatial planning. Not only that, but this development also meets several criteria for sustainable development, namely ease of moving places (transit), variations in land use (mix), density between buildings (densify), no vacant land (compact), and easy transfer between modes. (shifts).”
In the design, Wahyu Aji utilizes an integrated digital system of Building Information Modeling (BIM) which contains various information related to construction and is applied in a planning process. The CESTION competition took place in May 2022 and was participated by several universities in Indonesia, such as UI, UNS, ITS, UGM, ITB, ITK, UNDIP, UPN Veterans East Java, and others.
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Public Communication Bureau
Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia