A Guide to Balikpapan Roads

As with most things out here, the roads in Balikpapan are not quite the same as in the UK. True, they are (usually) covered in tarmac, some have associated pavements, some are dual carriageways with central reservations and others simply have a white line separating the carriageways. Similarities end here, with the roads in Balikpapan having their own unique style....

Kerbstones

Any road of good quality has to have a kerb. To be of excellent quality however, the kerbstones have to be painted black and white (alternately), and touched up every 6 months or so. This is something which Total did to our Housing Complex last summer, so that it now feels like you are driving through the streets of Monaco on Grand Prix day....

Pot holes

The monsoon season does not treat the roads of Balikpapan kindly, and leaves the road surface a little bit battered. This can take the form of simple potholes, which often take up the entire carriageway, or simply make the road so bumpy, that it feels like a roller coaster. In more serious cases, the entire road may wash away, as happened after last year's rains, when two and a half carriageways of the main road from the airport into town disappeared down the hill. They have nearly been repaired - just in time for this year's rains!

Central Reservations

An important part of any major road (with associated black and white kerb stones). A road is currently being upgraded from having single carriageways with a white line separating them, to a much wider dual carriageway with the all-important central reservation. Unfortunately, the logic of Balikpapan road builders is to get the central reservation finished before finishing the road surface, thus making the road too narrow to drive down...

White Lines

...And on the subject of narrow roads, my personal favourite is a newly resurfaced road which we came accross last week. It is obviously in the process of being widened, but even in its present state, it would still be wide enough to have two carriageways, one for each direction. However, it has been decided to get the white lines painted ready - with one carriageway wide enough for a car, and the other (still to be widened but already resurfaced), only wide enough for a motorbike!

Surface

As with a lot of things in Balikpapan, just because something is new, it doesn't mean that it is of good quality. This also applies to roads - there is a road around the corner from our house which has been resurfaced about 3 weeks ago, and already the weeds are poking through the tarmac!

Bridges

For me, the scariest part is the bridges - you only have to look at Balikpapan BridgeClimb to know what I mean! Indonesians are acclaimed for the quality of their bridges and bridge building skills - in fact, the bridge over the River Kwai (to replace the one that was blown up) was built in Java, Indonesia, and then shipped out to Thailand. So why is it, that bridges in Balikpapan look like this?