Mount Maunganui Bayfair flyover: Tauranga City Council has no data on whether traffic’s improved

It would be “premature” to try to measure the congestion impact of the new Bayfair flyover now, Tauranga City Council says.

The flyover opened on April 27 as part of the $262 million Baypark to Bayfair (B2B) project, also known as BayLink, and council staff has said it was expected to help improve travel times.

The project, under construction for more than six years, aimed to separate traffic using local roads from commuter and freight traffic on State Highway 2 at two busy roundabouts.

The council was asked for comparative traffic count data for local roads and intersections surrounding the flyover before, during, and after its opening but it revealed this week no data existed.

The morning of the flyover opening, people complained of a “log jam” as their typical commutes took much longer with congestion running on Maunganui Rd, from Hewletts Rd to Girven Rd, and beyond.

As part of the opening, the road and roundabout access was reduced to a single lane with a slower speed limit as a temporary safety precaution. Others who travelled over the flyover reported it reduced their usual commute time significantly.

Council director of transport Brendan Bisley said the Addinsight system used to capture congestion levels in the city did not apply to the B2B area yet and the council did not collect traffic counts more than once a year. It was still waiting for the latest traffic count data for some B2B sites, which had been delayed, he said.

He said monitoring of the site would begin once the B2B was complete, as any data now “would be unusable for comparison due to changing traffic management setups”.

“It would be premature to try to measure benefits now.”

Addinsight used Bluetooth from car stereos (not cell phones) to measure traffic flow, reading about a third of all vehicles to produce a usable sample rate, Bisley said.

Asked how the council made decisions or recommendations about traffic without more regular counts, he said it could use traffic and roading databases, or make estimates based on prior or nearby counts and local knowledge.

Tauranga City Council director of transport Brendan Bisley. Photo / George Novak

The council did traffic counts on 206 sites a year and 150 other sites biennially. He said these counts were “not a measure of congestion”.

“Once the B2B project is complete we will conduct a comprehensive review of the traffic count programme as part of our annual evaluation process,” Bisley said.

He said the main purpose of collecting the data was to understand traffic patterns independent of temporary factors such as construction.

The flyover was one of the last significant pieces of infrastructure to be opened as part of the B2B, which also has a flyover bypassing the Te Maunga roundabout.

Last month, then-acting council director of transport Anna Somerville said the flyover would “improve freight and commuter journey times during the morning and evening peak”.

Previously, Bisley also said the overall project would ultimately have a positive impact on traffic and travel times and should reduce rat-running on other roads.

Matapihi resident Russ Hawkins said he went through the Bayfair roundabout most days and found that since the flyover opened, exiting Matapihi Rd was much easier and his trips were quicker.

“There’s very little hold-up from the Matapihi side, where it used to be backed up to Russley Dr. It’s definitely better.”

Hawkins said he could see the traffic using the flyover from his home and it often appeared to be flowing, with little congestion.

While the area was still busy, it was less jammed, he said.

“I think there’s still the same amount of traffic but it’s just been dispersed better.”

The B2B project, led by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, was expected to cost $262m and be completed by the end of this year.