From Commodities to Corridors: Siting and Financing Agro-Processing Along the Trans-Sumatra Toll Road

Gunawan Saroji (1) Department of Civil Engineering Politeknik Negeri Bengkalis, Sungai Alam, Bengkalis 28734, Indonesia. 2) Center for Sustainable Infrastructure Development (CSID), Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424)
Mohammed Ali Berawi (2) Center for Sustainable Infrastructure Development (CSID), Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424, Indonesia. 3) Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424)
Hilman Wardhana (Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424)
Mustika Sari (2) Center for Sustainable Infrastructure Development (CSID), Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424, Indonesia. 3) Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424)
Siti Rahma Utami (Center for Sustainable Infrastructure Development (CSID), Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424)
Perdana Miraj (2) Center for Sustainable Infrastructure Development (CSID), Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424, Indonesia. 4) Design and Construction Management, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, Delft)

Civil Engineering Journal
Vol. 12 No. 8 (2026): August

This research establishes a corridor-focused screening framework aimed at prioritizing agro-processing siting and funding along the northern section of the Trans-Sumatra Toll Road (JTTS) in Aceh and North Sumatra. Sectoral specialization is initially determined through the Location Quotient (LQ) based on the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) structure at the district level, subsequently refined via development-readiness indicators and assessed against corridor accessibility using distance bands to toll gates. Capital requirements are evaluated and adjusted to 2022 prices by applying the time value of money to create an indicative investment envelope. The evaluation procedure underscores nine essential regions and four vital sectors—rice milling, integrated coconut processing, food production, and palm oil refining. The findings suggest that proximity to the corridor significantly influences feasibility: sites within reasonable access bands demonstrate clearer short-term viability, while locations exceeding 15 km from toll access are conditionally feasible and highly sensitive to feeder-road stipulations. The estimated early funding framework is roughly IDR 15.87 trillion, chiefly directed towards capital-intensive palm oil areas. This study's contribution lies in implementing a transparent and auditable stepwise prioritization logic that connects specialization, readiness, access, and capital intensity into a screening-level decision-support tool, while explicitly addressing access constraints, utilization risks, and environmental compliance factors.