Essay on the Collapse of Kutai Kartanegara Bridge

The Kutai Kartanegara Bridge was a suspension bridge based in Indonesia. The bridge was based in Borneo Island in Kalimantan Timur that crosses river Mahakam and connected Tenggarong and Samarinda. PT Hutama Karya began the construction of the bridge in 1995 and completed it in 2001. The suspension bridge was the longest in Indonesia. On November 26, 2011, the suspension bridge collapsed while workers were performing maintenance. The reason for its collapse was the failure of a clamp cable band, which connects the hanger in the main cable, in the middle of the center span. According to the national investigation team report, the collapse occurred due to too much stress and corrosion of the clamps. The failure led to 22 deaths, 40 injuries, and about 33 missing (3S Media, 2013, p.14). The key participants in the case were Kartanegaras chief infrastructure Yoyok Suriana, the projects technician Setiono, and a construction worker, Muhammad Syahrial Fahrurrozi (Jakarta Globe, n.d, p.1). In the case, some people benefited while others were hurt. Some of the people who were hurt include all the families and friends who lost their loved ones during the bridges collapse. Those who benefited were the construction company and all its workers, head of the Kutai Kartanegara district, public work agency, as well as the government.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Decisions and Actions

The key participants made some moral decisions and actions regarding the case. For instance, they took upon themselves to conduct repairs on the bridge. However, despite the fact that the bridge collapsed some minutes when the repairs took place, the construction workers acted morally when they attempted to repair the bridge after they noticed the hanging wires. Indeed, they took keen interest in improving the services of the people using that bridge. Moreover, they made good decisions regarding their overall level of expenditure on infrastructure capacity, its allocation, delivery, and maintenance of the suspension bridge. Another moral decision made by the key participants was asset management. Over the last ten years before the bridges collapse, the construction workers performed several repairs to ensure that the sagging wires and cables were stable. As Mangkoesoebroto (2011, p.10) explains, the bridge had began to show several warning such as offset of the anchor block and slippage of cable bands. These decisions and actions were critical because it brought up the topic of accountability. In general, the key participants decisions and actions showed that they were liable o their actions.

Values

Some values such as time, money, safety, and reputation drove the key participants in the case to make the decisions and actions they took. For instance, explicitly, the time taken to complete the construction of the bridge was 10 years. As it appears, engineers did an excellent work taking their time to construct the bridge. The value of time enabled those construction workers to make better decisions. Bambang Suhendro, a construction expert at Gadja Mada University, asserted that since the bridge served the residents for ten years, it means that engineers met requirements such as strength, stability, fitness, and durability (Indriasari and Susilo, 2011, p.1). In regards to money, it seems that the bridge cost a huge sum of money to construct. However, according to reports, government corruption was at its peak, as a lot of money saved for its construction was not used for its intended purpose. Tactically, the construction workers attempted to ensure that they all recognized their role in ensuring the safety of people who used the bridge. They followed the Construction Design and Management Regulations in their practice. Nevertheless, those workers appeared to have deflected their attention to ensure the safety of the people. Their reputation came to a halt through their approach to procurement where their construction designs purpose to save lives appeared unconvincing. Apparently, their stature failed because people doubted their competence regarding the design, originality, and maintenance.

Part 2: Value Analysis

Better Actions and Decisions

From a personal perspective, what should have happened in the case is for the key participants to incorporate effort and better material during the construction of Kutai Kartanegara Bridge. On the real sense, the key participants would have made better decisions and taken appropriate actions. According to Matsuno (n.d, p.3), the bridge began to show signs of collapse. For example, horizontal displacement of the main cables is one of the signs of bridges collapse. The consolidation of the soil resulted in extra sagging of the main cables. In such a case, the key participants would have focused on fixing the main cables for long-term use. Additionally, another sign of the collapse was the inclination of towers and shaking of hangers (Matsuno, 2012, p.3). Once the engineers learned of the unstable towers and instability of the hangers, they would have taken a major step of repairing those issues. In fact, they would have stopped the movement of people and vehicles on the bridge for some time while they do the repairs. As the United Press International News (2012, p.1) reports, police in Indonesia affirm that the key participants negligence lead to the deaths and injuries of all those people. It is believable that the key participants made poor choices that led to bad decisions. For instance, the quality of materials, design, construction, and maintenance were of low quality.

Better Values

In my opinion, values that would have guided the decisions of the key participants include continuous improvement, integrity, communication, and engagement. The key participants would have made non-stop improvements on the bridge. More so, they would have made regular checks to ensure that all the cables, supporting poles, and wires were strong to support the hundreds of people who used the bridge on a daily basis. Additionally, regarding integrity, they would have possessed good principles. As the Geografika Nusantara (2011, p.1) puts forward, the rampant corruption in Indonesia led to loss of lives in the bridge. As it indicates, the government neglects the maintenance of bridges and other infrastructure because they feel it does not offer similar opportunities for graft. Integrity comes in when the construction workers as well as PT Hutama Karya Construction Company would have demanded for funds from the government to take care of repairs and maintenance. Moreover, in regards to communication, once the construction company began to hear reports about the sagging of the wires and cables, they would have communicated effectively with the public agency and the community regarding the signs of collapse. As mentioned above, during the repairs, the construction company would have cleared the bridge and disallow movement of people and cars during the maintenance time. Engagement comes in when all the participants would have been committed to ensure that the collapse would have never happened. The reason these values are important in ones view is that they would have all prevented the catastrophic tragedy. If the engineers had paid keen interests on these values, the bridge would not have collapsed.

Moral Lessons

The collapse of Kutai Kartanegara Bridge shocked the engineering community as a whole. Engineers can learn plenty of moral lessons from the bridge. For instance, the primary moral lesson that engineers should learn from the collapse of the bridge is that they should take a careful and well-documented design of future bridges. They ought to know that poor management of infrastructure and inappropriate design standards can result in inevitable consequences. Bambang Suhendro, a construction expert from Gadja Mada University, affirmed that the connection system of the bridge met requirements such as strength, stability, fitness, durability, and sustainability (Indriasari and Susilo, 2011, p.1). According to him, the primary reason for its collapse was its main cables and hanger wires. Additionally, he adds that despite the bridge met all those requirements, the engineers failed to make proper maintenance. Judging from Suhendros sentiments, engineers should learn not to play with peoples lives. Kutai Kartanegara Bridge was one that dozens of people passed through daily. The engineers would have put in extra effort when constructing the bridge. They would have made maintenance checks on the cables and wires of the bridge twice or thrice annually because of the heavy load that the bridge had. More so, those engineers should learn the aspect of professional ethics. They ought to show consideration and respect for others. By that, it means that they should build stable bridges and conduct more maintenance checks to avoid such a case in the future. These lessons are important to learn because they are integral to the success as well as the reputation of their business.

Works Cited

3S Media. Imiesa August 2012. 2013. Accessible at https://issuu.com/glen.t/docs/imiesa_august_2012lr

Geografika Nusantara. The Human Cost of Corruption: The Collapse of the Kartanegara Bridge.2011. Accessible at http://keith-travelsinindonesia.blogspot.co.ke/2011/12/human-costs-of-corruption-collapse-of.html

Indriasari, Lusiana and Susilo, Harry. Kartanegara Bridge Construction : Evaluating the Causes of Collapse. Indonesia Infrastructure Initiative. 2011. Accessible at http://indii.co.id/index.php/en/news-publication/weekly-infrastructure-news/kartanegara-bridge-construction-evaluating-the-causes-of-collapse

Jakarta Globe. Three Jailed Over Deadly Kalimantan Bridge Collapse. N.d. Accessible at http://jakartaglobe.id/archive/three-jailed-over-deadly-kalimantan-bridge-collapse/

Mangkoesoebroto, Sindur. Collapse Analysis of the Mahakam Ii Bridge. 2011. Accessible at https://wiryanto.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/paper-128.pdf

Matsuno, Sohei. A study on the Cause of Kukar Bridge Collapse. 2012. Accessible at https://www.academia.edu/6733314/A_STUDY_ON_THE_CAUSE_OF_KUKAR_BRIDGE_COLLAPSE