A Tauranga Eastern Link (TEL) milestone will begin this week as piling work gets underway at Papamoa's interchange with State Highway 2.
The Domain Road interchange is considered one of the most complex structures to build on the TEL project.
Before piling could begin, ground conditions had to be improved
and pre-load material (sand) was placed more than nine months ago near the Domain Road intersection.
Sections of the pre-load material has been removed over the last few weeks and reused in other parts of the project. The remaining pre-load material in this area will be removed at a later date to allow further settlement to occur.
NZTA's Bay of Plenty state highways manager, Brett Gliddon, said now that some of the pre-load material has been removed, the next phase of construction for the Domain Road interchange bridges is piling, which will be undertaken in two stages.