About 400 intersections in Tauranga are scheduled for change as the Tauranga City Council prepares the streets for the country's new give way rules.
From March 25 free left-turning drivers will have the right of way at all intersections and many Tauranga roads need to be updated to cope with the changes.
Tauranga City Council transportation operations manager Martin Parkes has spent the past nine months inspecting the city's traffic system and said the council had identified 65 local intersections for immediate updating, with around 335 more to be altered during the next few years.
Most of the intersections identified for change are uncontrolled - crossroads or T-intersections with neither give way nor stop signs - but some give way intersections will also be upgraded to stop signs.
There are 10 intersections Mr Parkes identified as most urgent because of the speed and traffic-volume risks.
"Some of them are local roads that intersect with what we call our main arterial roads. [For all of them] it's either high speed approaches [to the intersections] or it's high traffic volumes.
"That's a potential there for crashes to occur if we don't put the controls in," he said.
Mr Parkes said the first 65 intersections, which were signed-off by council on Monday, would take "a couple of months to sort out". The remaining intersections would be upgraded later, when funding allowed.
"It's far too expensive to do them all in one hit. For the 65 we are going to change, I'd already estimated around $20,000 for those changes. We haven't been given any extra funding from the [NZ] Transport Agency," he said.
The complete process for all of the 400-plus intersections will cost up to $140,000. Under the new system, from 5am, Sunday, March 25, the give way-to-your-right rule will be dropped. The change based largely on the success of a similar rule reversal in Victoria, Australia in 1993. This will bring the country's road rules back in line with international norms.
The change is also expected to lower the accident rate at intersections and lessen the road toll.
NZTA spokesman Andy Knackstedt said there was a 2.5 per cent rise in intersection accidents in the three years after the 1977 rule was introduced, in contrast to a 7.1 per cent drop in Victoria, after a similar rule was reversed in 1993.
The agency expects the rule change to result in a reduction of about 7 per cent in intersection crashes, and to save an average of one life and prevent 97 injuries - 13 of them serious - each year.
AA motoring affairs chief Mike Noon did not anticipate serious problems.
He said the implementation of the change was based on the way it was done in Victoria.
"That is, to have a really heavy burst of awareness in the two weeks or 10 days before the change comes into effect.
Mr Noon said there was not high compliance with the current give way rule anyway.
COMING TO AN INTERSECTION NEAR YOU:
1. Give Way controlling Hammond Street at Welcome Bay Road
2.Give Way controlling Kentia Avenue at Gloucester Road
3.Give Way controlling Lotus Avenue at Gloucester Road
4.Give Way controlling Reilly Avenue at Sunrise Avenue
5.Give Way controlling Pemberton Crescent at Mansels Road
6.STOP controlling Tutchen Street at Eleventh Avenue
7.STOP controlling Parkvale Road at Grange Road
8.STOP controlling Boscabel Drive at Ohauiti Road
9.STOP controlling Wharf Street (west) at Cameron Road
10.STOP controlling Rowesdale Drive at Ohauiti Road
11.Give Way controlling Jasmine Place at Hibiscus Avenue
12.Give Way controlling Waiariki Street at Oceanbeach Road
13.Give Way controlling Lasiandra Place at Gloucester Road
14.Give Way controlling Coach Drive at Grange Road
15.Give Way controlling Percy Road at Domain Road
16.Give Way controlling Webb Place at Evans Road
17.Give Way controlling Wilkinson Street at Fraser Street
18.Give Way controlling Thornlea Drive at Waitaha Road
19.Give Way controlling Caernarvon Rise at Beaumaris Boulevard
20.Give Way controlling Glamis Grove at Beaumaris Boulevard
21.Give Way controlling Hayes Avenue at Chadwick Road
22.STOP controlling Bay Street at Levers Road
23.STOP controlling Idesia Grove at Levers Road
24.STOP controlling Rewarewa Place at Levers Road
25.Give Way controlling Westwood Street at Princess Road
26.Give Way controlling Cynthia Place at Carlton Street
27.Give Way controlling Winchester Terrace at Westminster Drive
28.Give Way controlling Bell Common Close at Townhead Crescent
29.Give Way controlling Richmond Heights at Bethlehem Heights
30.Give Way controlling Brodie Place at Kinloch Drive
31.Give Way controlling Lorna Place at Grosmont Terrace
32.STOP controlling Mission Street at Chapel Street
33.STOP controlling Bureta Road (north side) at Ngatai Road
34.STOP controlling Vine Avenue at Maungatapu Road
35.STOP controlling Twentieth Avenue at Clarke Street
36.Give Way controlling Aerodrome Road at Newton Street
37.STOP controlling St Andrews Drive at Orange Lane
38.Give Way controlling Spur Avenue at Links Avenue
39.Give Way controlling Matthew Street at Clarke Street
40.Give Way controlling Dunrobbin Place at Tuthill Street
41.Give Way controlling Hillstone Avenue at Cornwall Street
42.Give Way controlling Lincoln Terrace at Cornwall Street
43.Give Way controlling Hillstone Avenue at Sheppard Street
44.Give Way controlling Manley Grove South at Sheppard Street
45.Give Way controlling Murray Street at Cook Street
46.Give Way controlling Percival Avenue at Tilby Drive
47.Give Way controlling Eaton Crescent at Smiths Road
48.Give Way controlling Tainui Street at Matua Road
49.STOP controlling Lysaght Place at Village Park Drive
50.STOP controlling Dunton Drive at Arawata Avenue
51.STOP controlling Ward Street at Cook Street
52.STOP controlling Mahoe Street at Matua Road
53.STOP controlling Mission Street at Cliff Road
54.Give Way controlling Forrester Drive at Forrester Drive
55.Give Way controlling Norris Street at Ninth Avenue
56.Give Way controlling Aspen Place at Sandhurst Drive
57.Give Way controlling Haven Grove at Sandhurst Drive
58.Give Way controlling Tainui Street at Matua Road
59.Give Way controlling Christopher Street at Fourteenth Avenue
60.Give Way controlling Graham Place at Bellevue Road
61.Give Way controlling Devonport Road at Eighteenth Avenue
62.Give Way controlling Faulkner Street at Cook Street
63.STOP controlling Percival Avenue at Tainui Street
64.Give Way controlling Achilles Crescent at James Cook Drive
65.Give Way controlling Achilles Crescent at Victory Street