In an archipelagic country with 17,508 islands, a road network system is a basic need to connect people and businesses to jobs, services, markets, reduce logistics costs, and stimulate industrial growth in Indonesia. In response to these needs, the government has placed high connectivity as one of its top priorities. Through Presidential Regulation No. 100 of 2014, which was later amended by Presidential Regulation No. 117 of 2015, the Government gave Hutama Karya the mandate to build and develop the Trans-Sumatra Toll Road.
Soft soil itself is divided into soft clay and peat soil. Soft clay soil is often found in Indonesia, including on the north coast of Java, the north coast of Sumatra, in Kalimantan, and in the West and South of Papua. Likewise, peat soil can be found in Sumatra and Kalimantan, which is estimated to cover 18 to 27 million hectares. Soft soil and peat have poor geotechnical characteristics for the soil base, low shear strength, and large deformation potential. Appropriate geotechnical solutions, including earthwork solutions and soil improvement solutions, need to be developed.
With these problems, an evaluation of handling on soft soil will be carried out. Hutama Karya Infrastruktur as a partner in implementing this PKM has a problem in finding the right solution for handling soft soil at the location. Therefore, in this PKM, problems will be identified, then studies will be conducted, interviews with partners, and finally transformed into an evaluation study. Putu Ika Wahyuni said that Mitra Hutama Karya Infrastruktur in this case was involved in interviews and assisting in collecting data that could be used as a reference to obtain soft soil handling that could help partners.
Based on the results of drilling in the field, it can be seen that the soil layer is indeed dominated by soft soil. The majority is dominated by clayey silt, then there is a sand lens between the soft soil layers with a thickness of ± 5.00 meters. Based on the technical data obtained, a technical study was carried out to determine the analytical study based on Plaxis software and technical field data. For this technical study, Plaxis software is used, this is software in the geotechnical field with a finite element software base.
