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Project Implementation at the Papua River Estuary – East Palapa Ring Development

Papua | September 16, 2021 The deployment of the submarine fiber optic cable for the East Palapa Ring project, carried out by PT Palapa Timur Telematika, involved four cable-laying vessels.

This project also operated tugboats to complement the deployment in river estuary areas, as in Project 10 (Tangguh, Bintuni, Teminabuan).

The definition of a river estuary is the narrow downstream section of a river that connects to the sea. River estuaries also serve as channels for river discharge into the sea.

The lengths of river estuaries deployed using tug boats include: Bintuni (12 km), Tangguh (3 km), and Teminabuan (3 km).

In this project, there were river estuaries that could not be reached by the Nostag 10 cable ship due to the river's width and depth, making it difficult for large vessels to pass through.

Therefore, tug boats were relied upon for the deployment process, including the transfer of the shore-end cable to land.

The first stage: the cable reel was transferred from the Nostag 10 to the tug boat. After that, the cable, already on the tug boat, was deployed using a plow capable of burying it to a depth of 2-3 meters.

During the deployment process, divers were also deployed to observe the area around the estuary and the position of the cable being deployed.

Challenges during deployment from the sea through the estuary This is due to the ebb and flow of water, which takes a long time to reach a safe minimum water level, coupled with the busy flow of other vessels.

The project involved a total of 20 workers, plus 15 local workers to assist with the cable transfer process.

Source: Kornelis Mansye