Roads and bridges in Atjeh — the transport roads of Groot-Atjeh finished in 1882, the column roads of the tramway era, the mountain highway of the Gajo, and the traffic- and motor-roads carried through the whole province under Governors Van Daalen, Swart and Van Sluys — formed the physical net by which the pacification reached the interior, crowned in 1923 by the possibilty of travelling by car from Medan to Koeta Radja.
The first net, 1874–1884
The first works of the Dutch were communication works: the Oelèë Lheue–Koeta Radja road of five kilometres (1874–1876), followed inside Groot-Atjeh by the road of Lambaroh to Aneugalong (completed August 1882), the continuing road to Glé Kambing and the decided road from Toengkop to Montassik; the bridge over the Kroeëng Raba made a regular connection with Lehong. “Het wegennet in Groot-Atjeh naderde zijn voltooiing”: the great transport road to Glé Kambing was wholly finished with its necessary works of art, as the road from Aneügalong to Toengkōp; iron bridges were laid over the Atjeh River at Glé Kambing and at Lambaroh, “while at several places the roads were improved and the smaller bridges therein occurring were as much as possible replaced by iron ones, to take from the evilly-disposed the opportunity of breaking the communication”. The population of Gajo and elsewhere remembered equally the cost of roads built and maintained by statute labour.
Van Daalen’s traffic policy
Van Daalen devoted his attention in the first place to the traffic routes which had to facilitate the exercise of the newly established authority in remote tracts, and which formed at the same time the economic traffic-connections between the often wholly separated parts of the land and the coast. Beside a number of screw-pile bridges over smaller rivers and creeks, there arose under utmost difficult circumstances the iron bridge over the Peusangan at Teupen Blang Manè on the Gajo road (built on the Governor’s initiative by the engineer troops at no cost to the road fund, 1906, photographed). The necessary funds came from the wegenfonds (road fund), which equally supported garden advances (see People’s credit in Atjeh).
Swart: Gajo road, Medan road, motorization
Under Governor Swart the road materialization quickened: the Gajo road from Bireuen to the Laoet Tawar, begun in 1904 and uninterruptedly worked on under the preceding governor, was completed and likewise made fit for motor traffic. The great road from Medan over the Karo highland to Koeta Tjane in the Alas lands was wholly finished and fit for motor traffic, and Swart had it continued first to Blang Kedjerēn as a horse-path, linking there to the horse-path to Lōköp and thence over Rantō Pandjang to Birem-Rajeu in the department East Coast. Wherever government establishments came, decent dwellings and offices arose for the administrating officials, government pasanggrahan (rest-houses) were built and furnished, and numerous other buildings (hospitals, prisons etc.) arose; iron screw-pile and lattice bridges were raised wherever the roads required. Since the motor-car had made its entry, the roads were made fit as much as possible for motor traffic: “In 1918 waren reeds 154 auto’s, eenige vrachtauto’s en 10 motorrijwielen in gebruik, terwijl het aantal rijwielen vele duizenden bedroeg” — 154 cars, some lorries and 10 motorcycles in use, and many thousands of bicycles, “zeer in den smaak gevallen van de Atjehsche bevolking” (“much to the taste of the Atjehnese population”).
Van Sluys: freedom from statute labour
Early in 1919 the construction and maintenance of works of art in the main roads was entrusted to the service of Civil Public Works, and the statute labour for the Koeta Radja–Medan connecting road abolished; from 1 January 1919 no statute labour might be demanded for a number of roads — all important motorable roads in Groot-Atjeh (see Taxation in Atjeh). The future programme Van Sluys sketched in 1923: a connecting line Sigli–Meulaboh, lines from there to Singkel and to Koeta Tjane (Koeta Radja of the interior, in Van Sluys’s phrasing), a road from Koeta Tjane to Blang Kedjeren and Takengon, and more roads on the North Coast of Atjeh — “de binnenlanden, die uit hun isolement verlost moeten worden” (“the interior, which must be freed from its isolation”). The landscape treasuries possessed just enough to maintain their own lands and roads; “De Regeering alleen zal voor de in Atjeh noodige verdere pacificatiemiddelen geld moeten geven!”
See Also
- Peusangan River
- Gajo- en Alaslanden
- Atjeh Tram
- H. N. A. Swart
- A. G. H. van Sluys
- Pacification of Atjeh
Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu
103 km road from Bireuën to Takengon (Gajo-land), completed 1913. Cost ~f 20,000/km, total ~2 million guilders. Crosses the Peusangan-rivier at Blang Mané, reaches Kroečng Seumpo at K.M. 18. Cut through very accident-prone terrain and heavy freight traffic. Replaced the old ‘vrouwenwegen’ (women’s paths). Conditio sine qua non for coffee, tea, resin/turpentine enterprises. Critic Van Kol called 2/10 wasted; JongejansRoad completed in1914 that opened the Gajo-landen to cultivation; brought attention to mountain cultures (tea, coffee) along the road to Takengon.
Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 47, 70, 195, 204.
Source
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 47, 50, 75, 89–90, 107–108, 112, 121, 124–125.
Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 73, 74, 75, 76, 78, 379.