Maungatapu Bridge crash: Motorists advised to steer clear of main Bay of Plenty highway

A crash earlier this evening has forced delays in the area of Maungatapu bridge. Photo / File

Police are advising motorists in the Bay of Plenty to steer clear of the Maungatapu bridge following a crash there earlier this evening.

Emergency services are at the scene following a single-vehicle crash on State Highway 29A reported to them shortly before 6pm.

A police spokeswoman understood a car to have gone off the road and down a bank before the bridge. The car is not in the water.

The bridge connects Maungatapu to Matapihi and Pāpāmoa.

Google's traffic map of Tauranga city shows traffic is slow through the Matapihi area, especially for motorists in the westbound lane.

It comes after the Bay of Plenty Regional Council earlier this week fished a green station wagon out of Rangataua Bay - the bay the bridge goes over.

On Tuesday, council staff waited until low tide to get a barge with a crane under the bridge, then at high tide was able to reach the vehicle and recover it.

The vehicle was so embedded into the shoreline that it had to be cut in pieces to get lifted out of the sand.

It's believed it was submerged for more than a year, however, how it came underwater remains a mystery.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council compliance manager Stephen Mellor said it was not clear how the vehicle ended up in Rangataua Bay but estimated it had been there since about December 2019.

"We check with police prior to investigating and retrieving all vehicles in waterways to determine if the vehicle is stolen and/or part of an ongoing investigation," he said.

"Regional council has the ability to check vehicle owner details if a registration plate is identified. If owner details can be identified then we seek to recover the cost of removal from the owner.

"In this instance all means available to identify the owner of the vehicle had been removed and no owner was able to be identified."

When no owner is able to be identified, the cost of the recovery is covered by the council.