Traffic congestion is a regular feature on SH2 at the Wairoa Bridge, Emma Bryan says. Photo / File
Traffic congestion is a regular feature on SH2 at the Wairoa Bridge, Emma Bryan says. Photo / File
Two years ago Whakamarama mother Emma Bryan was dropping her 10-year-old son at school half an hour before it opened each day just to make it through State Highway 2 traffic and into Tauranga on time.
Bryan's commute to Windermere in2019 used to take about 45 minutes. Now, that's how long it takes just to get from Barretts Rd to the Wairoa Bridge most mornings - a 7.5km distance. If she needs to be in Tauranga at 8.30am, she leaves at 7am "just to be sure I'm there on time".
It's a daily slog that has long dominated the Bryan family schedule.
Husband Shane is out the door by 5.30am to avoid the worst of the traffic. If he leaves any later he gets caught in traffic when two years ago he had a clear run, she said.
The couple's youngest attends school in Tauranga now, instead of at Ōmokoroa, so he joins his older brother and sister in waiting for the bus by their gate at 7.30am. School doesn't start until 8.40am but they often have to get late passes, Bryan said.
"My kids are still standing on a bus for over an hour to get to and from school. The traffic jams are the same," Bryan said.
Emma Bryan and son Chris, pictured two years ago, when she had to drop him at school before it opened each day so she could get to Tauranga on time. Photo / File
Tauranga City council data obtained by the Bay of Plenty Times reveal an overall peak in traffic at 10 of the city's busiest intersections in 2019, including the SH2 and Moffat Rd roundabout which recorded an annual average daily traffic count of 295,330 that year. Last year, the average count was 275,910 - a drop of 6.58 per cent.
But Bryan isn't convinced, saying there seems to be more traffic on the road than ever before in her more than 10 years of living at Whakamarama.
The number of vehicles on SH2 had become so extreme, trying to exit a road onto the highway was a daily battle, she said.
"It's a suicide run for everyone trying to get out of Barret Rd, Youngson Rd, etc. It's horrible and such a horrible feeling to try to cross that highway just because of the amount of traffic that's on there."
Over the past two years there had been a notable increase in traffic clogging the highway from Wairoa Bridge to Te Puna roundabout in the afternoons, she said.
"It used to be fairly free-flowing coming out of Tauranga but now the traffic never seems to let up."
Ultimately, Bryan said she would like to see safer merging lanes for traffic coming out of the side roads but doubted any improvements such as the Takitimu Northern Link would happen anytime soon.
"I hear things like 'it's going ahead' then that ball just keeps getting tossed in the air again, the lines keep getting pushed back. I can't believe anything any more. I just feel helpless. I know every city has its problems but how much longer do we have to keep on waiting?"
Aside from waiting for roading projects, Bryan said other avenues such as a high school in Ōmokoroa would take a "huge percentage of people off the road".
"But we just don't have the infrastructure or the roads to help with that. There's no balance to allow for the new traffic from all of this new growth."
Traffic congestion is a regular feature on SH2 at the Wairoa Bridge, Emma Bryan says. Photo / File
Bryan acknowledged the Ōmokoroa to Tauranga cycleway served as an alternative to driving for some people "but not all".
"We're up in Whakamarama, in the hills. There is a huge population that live on this side of the state highway and we'd have to cross a very busy and very dangerous highway. The bike trail is great but it's not for everyone."
For now, the Bryan family are resigned to joining the masses to get to school and work.
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi regional manager of infrastructure Jo Wilton said the organisation understood the community's frustration around the timeframes of the "large and complex" Takitimu Northern Link project.
"The Western Bay of Plenty is one of the fastest-growing regions in New Zealand and transport planning is a key part of the UFTI [Urban Form and Transport Initiative] Connected Centres strategy. Projects of this scale involve processes with many time and cost constraints."
Designation and regional consents have been confirmed for stage one of the project (Tauranga to Te Puna) and its design and construct contract was expected to be awarded soon.
Asked how many properties were still yet to be bought to make way for the link, Wilton said there was 10 per cent remaining.
"This is a sensitive process, and we are in active negotiations with landowners. Subject to property negotiations, construction for stage one is expected to start late 2021."
Designation, consenting requirements and property acquisition are yet to be completed for stage two (Te Puna to Ōmokoroa) and preliminary design and site investigations are underway.
"We are investigating extending stage one north of Te Puna to deliver an additional 2km (previously part of stage two) within the stage one timeframe. However, this is dependent on property acquisition and consents."
Wilton said the agency would share more information about this next month.
