PROCEEDINGS

Joint Convention Balikpapan 2015

HAGI-IAGI-IAFMI-IATMI
58 October 2015

Delineation of Buried Old Tram Tracks of Surabaya City with Ground Penetrating Radar
Technology
Ayi Syaeful Bahri, Firman Syaifuddin, Juan Pandu G. N. R.
Geophysical Engineering, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Indonesia
e-mail: firman@geofisika.its.ac.id / firmansyaifuddinakbar@gmail.com
Abstract
Surabaya as one of the major cities are growing in
Indonesia requires a good mass transportation as one of the
functions of public services and city management. The
local government plans to reactivate the existing mass
transportation in the Dutch period in the form of a tram.
The existence of the old tram rail track experiencing
continuous accumulation as the development of the city
since the time of independence due to the ongoing road
paving.
In order to re-activation of the tram line, the identification
and tracing of the old rail tram lines that have been buried
deep enough by utilizing ground penetrating radar (GPR).
GPR method as one of the geophysical method chosen
because it is considered the most appropriate in this case
because of the GPR that utilizes electromagnetic wave
propagation phenomena are very sensitive to the presence
of a metal material that has a high conductivity. The
existence of highly conductive metals in soil and asphalt
environment resulted in a large dielectric permittivity
contrast so that the reflection of electromagnetic waves
with GPR technology easily identified. Signal processing
techniques are used to process the GPR data is to facilitate
the interpretation and identification process.
To be able to map the old tram lines in the city of Surabaya
overall well, the process of planning and design of the GPR
survey conducted compilation of data in the form of old
documents, photographs Surabaya past, and maps of the old
railway line. From the results of subsurface mapping was
done with GPR technology, most of the existence of the old
tram tracks identified by either the GPR data is consistent
with the maps and old Dutch tram lines and several times
longer paths indicated has undergone removal.
Introduction
In Surabaya, current transport trends present a considerable
challenge. Rising travel demand has been combined with
falling capacity of the public transport system, prompting
sustained increase in the use of private vehicles. The City
Government of Surabaya has recognized the need to take
action to avoid becoming another car-dependent,
congested, sprawling city, and have placed development of
urban public transport services as a public policy priority to
achieve its goal of improving accessibility and live ability.
The Surabaya Integrated Mass Rapid Transit System
(SMART), proposed by the City Government, involves two

key components a north-south street level tramway and an

east-west elevated monorail (City Form Lab, 2014).
The tramway planned follows the historic north-south
corridor which was built during the Dutch colonial era. The
condition of the old rails was buried by new road materials.
In order to re-activation of the tram line, the identification
and tracing of the old rail tram lines that have been buried
deep enough done by utilizing ground penetrating radar
(GPR).
Basicly GPR method is uses electromagnetic wave
propagation as tool to image the subsurface condition. The
electromagnetic properties of materials are related to their
composition (Reynold, 1997)
The applications of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)
method in highway inspection was conducted in both
Scandinavia and the USA. After several years of research
local transportation agencies are now beginning to
implement GPR technology for both network and project
level surveys( Saarenketoa, T. And Scullionb, T.,2000).
GPR (Ground penetrating radar) is one kind of the
detection technologies with rapid, non-destruction,
uninterrupted detection, and high-resolution (Zhang, C.,
Song, M., and Wang, L., 2012).
In many fields of civil engineering, the needs for innovative
sensing technologies are growing. Ground-penetrating
radar (GPR) is actually one of the most advanced sensing
technologies available, allowing a nonintrusive inspection
of the materials under investigation (Benedetto, A. and
Benedetto, F., 2014)
This paper is summary of the report project that was done
in the end of 2014 with project purposed to identified and
verified the presence of buried old tram rail track in the
Surabaya city.
Data and Method
In the execution of this work begins with designing GPR
survey will be done by collecting a variety of information
that can assist in the identification process. Information was
gathered from various sources such as project plan maps
rapid development of mass transit monorail and tram
Surabaya, map the old tram line penginggalan Dutch
owned by PT. KAI, Photographs surabaya past from

PROCEEDINGS
Joint Convention Balikpapan 2015
HAGI-IAGI-IAFMI-IATMI
58 October 2015
various sources on the internet that describe the use of
modes of transport trams at that time, then further field
surveys to review the existence of the old tram lines that
still exist and appear on the surface.

Figure 1: Data compilation for GPR survey design.

After compiling the data and further information on

specified lanes that will be measured by using GPR method
as well as the determination of the type of antenna to be
used to comply with the objectives and obtain optimal
results.
Based on the rule of thumb that exist in the measurement of
the GPR method, targets with depths ranging from 0 to 2
meters and dimensions of 5 to 10 cm then determined the
use of an antenna with a frequency of 600 MHz, so expect
the target can be seen clearly. In addition to the type of
antenna, the measurement path is determined by the
direction of bypass roads now, it's based on the results of
the collection of information that the tramway is on the
road today. Track number is determined as much as 113
tracks to be able to cover an area the project plan
reactivation old tram line.
GPR method of measurement is done at night to avoid the
problem of heavy traffic in the survey area. With the help
of the authorities the implementation of the survey can be
carried out smoothly.
After the acquisition of data and then do a simple data
processing of several workflows as follows:
1. Adjust signal position
2. Remove DC correction
3. Dewow correction
4. Background removal filter
5. Inverse amplitude decay
6. Frequency filter
7. Deconvolution
8. KL filter

Figure 2: GPR Survey done in the middle of night to avoid

traffic problem

GPR section interpretation process carried out by utilizing

the typical geometry of a metal material reflection caused
by the old tram rail line. In addition to qualitative
interpretation of GPR section also utilized instantaneous
amplitude attribute where a large dielectric permittivity
contrast more visible on this attribute.

Result and Discussion

From the results of data processing and interpretation of
qualitative identified the existence of the old streetcar line
which is buried in the roads now. In some trajectory
measurements that have been designed based on additional
information about the location of the old tram line but did
not find the tram line from the pengukuruan GPR, in the
analysis had been done lifting tramways based on the
physical appearance of GPR section. At the section visible
presence dielectric permittivity contrast between
overburden and native land before covered.

PROCEEDINGS
Joint Convention Balikpapan 2015
HAGI-IAGI-IAFMI-IATMI
58 October 2015
Baed on interpretation of the GPR section processed results
then do the physical evidence for the locations that have a
high degree of certainty the existence old tram line trace.
Physical proof performed at 3 points that are considered
attractive and can provide information assurance where the
old tram lines in the city of Surabaya.
Conclusions
Utilization of GPR method proved capable of identifying
the presence of tramways were buried well below the
surface. With the selection of the appropriate antenna to the
desired target GPR method is able to provide subsurface
information optimally.
The existence of the old tram lines in the city of Surabaya
in general proved to be still there and for some lines of
appointment indicated to have done a thorough tramways.

Figure 5: Interpreted GPR section with rail anomaly

present. This figure shows the present of four rail track
anomaly crossing by GPR line.

References
Benedetto, A. and Benedetto, F., 2014, Journal Sensor
Materials, Technologies and Applications, Volume 13,
Pages 393425.
Figure 3: Interpreted GPR section with metal anomaly
present. This figure shows the present of two rail track
anomaly crossing by GPR line.

City Form Lab, 2014, Surabaya Urban Corridor

Development Program, Final Report, June 2014.
Reynolds, J.M, 1997, An Introduction to Applied and
Environmental Geophysic,. England:John Wiley and
Son Ltd.Baffins, Chichester, West Susex PO19 IUD.
Saarenketoa, T. And Scullionb, T.,2000, Journal of
Applied Geophysics, Volume 43, Issues 24, March
2000, Pages 119138.
Zhang, C., Song, M., and Wang, L., 2012, International
Conference on Future Energy, Environment, and
Materials Energy Procedia, Volume 16, Pages 702
706

Figure 4: : Interpreted GPR section with contrast between

overburden and native land before covered.

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Joint Convention Balikpapan 2015
HAGI-IAGI-IAFMI-IATMI
58 October 2015

Figure 6: Physical evidence the presence of tram rail track after identified by GPR method