A petition launched in August last year to get Katikati a bypass is getting a second wind.
The online petition has collected 439 signatures, after only reaching 100 signatures seven days ago.
Earlier this week prominent Tauranga businesswoman Tina Jennen was seriously hurt in a head on smash on the stretch of road, prompting her partner to call for major safety upgrades to be made. Read his story here: 'She can't move, everything is in a cast'
It demanded a Katikati bypass be constructed on the designated route that was surveyed and purchased 10 years ago.
Petition-organiser and Katikati resident Jenny Hobbs said a paper petition had at least 1000 signatures.
"I've seen our pretty little village become a dirty industrial strip through the main centre and it breaks my heart. The traffic affects the liveability of our town on every level," she said.
The noise and air pollution affected people's desire to spend time in the town centre and the huge volume of trucks and cars passing through created a safety issue for people driving, walking and cycling around.
Katikati residents had become cynical and helpless when it came to the bypass, with many working to get it and nothing eventuating, Ms Hobbs said.
"I'm quite determined to put everything I've got into it as chairman of the community board."
The petition would be presented to Minister of Transport Simon Bridges.
"It's just another tool we have in the fight for a bypass."
Ms Hobbs said if someone had walked up the middle of the road over the weekend when traffic was at a standstill from Athenree to Bethlehem, they probably would have collected thousands of signatures from frustrated drivers stuck in traffic.
The online petition could be signed here: https://www.toko.org.nz/petitions/katikati-bypass-petition?bucket and the paper version was available to sign at Katikati Library.