How PT Hutama Karya’s Trans-Papua Road project harnessed digital geotechnics to cut travel time by 80% and improve vital access for 1.45 million people in Indonesia.
By Paul Gorman
For generations, Papua’s rugged landscape has acted as both a guardian and a gatekeeper—safeguarding the island’s distinctive biodiversity and vibrant cultures, but at the same time restricting access to vital health services, educational opportunities, and markets.
The ambitious Trans-Papua Road, a key Indonesian national strategic project spanning 3,400 kilometres, is designed to help overcome these longstanding barriers by forging vital connections between major cities such as Jayapura, Wamena, Nabire, and Merauke, and pave the way for Papua’s economic aspirations.
See how PT Hutama Karya used digital geotechnics to overcome steep slopes and link remote Papua communities. (Source: PT Hutama Karya).
At a cost of USD 209 million, the 50-kilometre Mamberamo–Elelim section of the road was particularly challenging—characterised by steep slopes, dense rainforests, and limited accessibility. However, this new section greatly reduced travel time—from six hours to just one hour and twenty minutes.
With over six decades of experience in road infrastructure, Indonesia-based PT Hutama Karya was tasked with the complex planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of this vital corridor.
Extreme terrain, fragile ecosystems, constrained soil investigation data, and heavy rainfall made engineering design difficult. The team had to keep roads usable on 15% grades, work within narrow rights-of-way, excavate up to 75 metres deep, and address major geotechnical risks.
Engineers had to tackle steep slopes and fragile terrain to design safe roads in remote Papua. (Source: PT Hutama Karya).
Such challenges required a departure from conventional approaches and called for integrated digital technologies to ensure project safety, efficiency, and sustainability.
Bentley and Seequent software solutions, including ContextCapture, Leapfrog Works, GeoStudio and PLAXIS 2D, enabled efficient design optimisation, resulting in cost savings of up to USD 1 million, mitigated failure risks as much as USD 2.5 million, reduced CO₂ emissions by nearly 50 thousand kilograms, and enabled a two-month schedule acceleration.
Amy Rachmadhani, Executive Vice President of Engineering and Information Technology at PT Hutama Karya, stated that these innovations, ‘improved collaboration, mitigated risks, and ensured a safer, more sustainable delivery of the Trans-Papua Road project.’
Results and impact: Digital innovations drive project success
- Design efficiency: Leapfrog Works, GeoStudio, and PLAXIS 2D reduced design iteration cycles by 27%, saving ~640 engineering hours and USD 3,200 in costs.
- Cost and schedule optimisation: GeoStudio and PLAXIS 2D for slope stability analysis saved up to USD 1M and shortened the schedule by 2 months.
- Risk mitigation: Soil reinforcement and management strategies lowered failure risk and helped prevent landslide damages or rework, saving up to USD 2.5M.
- Survey efficiency: LiDAR and ContextCapture cut topographic survey time by 50%, saving 89 days and USD 21,200 in field survey costs.
- Environmental impact: Improved planning and optimised cut-fill processes helped lower CO₂ emissions by 49,672 kg, aligning with project sustainability objectives.
Digital-first geotechnics: Overcoming Papua’s infrastructure challenges
To address the Mamberamo–Elelim project’s unique complexities, the PT Hutama Karya team adopted a digital-first strategy together with Seequent and Bentley’s innovative suite of geotechnical engineering and construction technologies.
The project began with a LiDAR-based digital survey, providing high-density point cloud data. Bentley’s ContextCapture transformed this data into a precise 3D reality mesh, allowing early identification of landslide-prone zones and sensitive environmental features.
Seequent’s Leapfrog Works implicit modelling capabilities enabled engineers to interpolate and visualise limited subsurface data, constructing detailed 3D geological models despite data scarcity. This facilitated a deeper understanding of the subsurface, optimised borehole placement, and refined excavation and soil reinforcement strategies.
Seequent solutions GeoStudio and PLAXIS 2D were deployed for advanced slope stability analysis and simulation of soil behavior under extreme conditions. The integration of these technologies accelerated design reviews, improved construction accuracy, and minimised environmental impact.
The integrated Seequent and Bentley digital workflow fostered real-time collaboration across geotechnical, structural, and construction teams, establishing a geotechnical database as the “single source of truth.”
This cross-disciplinary approach not only enabled effective decision-making but also treated project data as a valuable long-term asset for ongoing maintenance and future regional development.
To tackle the project’s complexities, the team used a digital-first approach using Seequent and Bentley technologies. (Source: PT Hutama Karya).
The predictive power of integrated digital models
The synergy of Seequent and Bentley’s ContextCapture, Leapfrog Works, GeoStudio, and PLAXIS 2D transformed the project’s approach to geotechnical modelling and risk mitigation.
High-resolution topographic and subsurface models provided accurate inputs for design optimisation and risk assessment, even in areas with limited soil investigation. Automated subsurface modelling improved the accuracy of geotechnical assumptions, reduced uncertainties in slope design, and supported reliable foundation planning.
GeoStudio and PLAXIS 2D enabled rapid evaluation of slip surfaces and safety factors, and finite element simulations anticipated potential settlement and slope failures.
The digital platform supported unified model sharing, reduced the risk of conflicting revisions, and enabled lean construction principles—minimising rework and shortening waiting times through efficient data management.
Seequent’s Leapfrog Works enabled engineers to build detailed 3D geological models for the challenging Mamberamo–Elelim section.
Legacy of innovative road engineering: Improved lives, resilient connectivity
The Mamberamo–Elelim section of the Trans-Papaua Road is expected to finish by late 2026, with the aim to improve access and equity for 1.45 million people in remote Papua.
With Seequent and Bentley’s digital solutions, PT Hutama Karya effectively created a safer, more sustainable road infrastructure solution. Innovative geotechnical modelling and real-time collaboration helped overcome the project’s remote location, uncertain terrain, and logistical challenges.
Reduced travel times and costs will boost community connectivity and opportunity, showcasing how digital geotechnics can support progress in even the most demanding regions.