The new off-ramp to the under-construction Pāpāmoa East Interchange. Photo / Tauranga City Council
The new off-ramp to the under-construction Pāpāmoa East Interchange. Photo / Tauranga City Council
The eastbound off-ramp to the new interchange connecting Pāpāmoa East to the Tauranga Eastern Link motorway will open next month and is expected to ease evening traffic to the suburb.
Tauranga City councillor Steve Morris told the Bay of Plenty Times thousands of people drove home to Pāpāmoa every evening,and having the off-ramp open would “really improve things”.
“Domain Rd is a real bottleneck … in the evenings in particular.”
The Pāpāmoa ward councillor said he was approached by a Pāpāmoa East business last year about the possibility of opening the off-ramp earlier than the rest of the interchange, given the entire project would take much longer.
“And so, through that, because it’s a Tauranga City Council project, Tauranga City Council had a significant appetite to open the off-ramp earlier.”
Tauranga City Council Pāpāmoa ward councillor Steve Morris. Photo / NZME
Opening the off-ramp had complications because the Tauranga Eastern Link is a toll road, so the council needed permission from the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi to do so.
Morris said he asked Mayor Mahé Drysdale to get in touch with Transport Minister Chris Bishop, which he did.
“So, we got the approval from NZTA, and now we’ve been working towards … getting things open earlier.
“This off-ramp is really going to improve things in terms of traffic flow into Pāpāmoa, in the evenings in particular.”
Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford at the Pāpāmoa East Interchange. Photo / Rosalie Liddle Crawford
The interchange will be constructed over the Tauranga Eastern Link, east of Wairākei neighbourhood, linking Te Okuroa Drive and future street The Sands Avenue.
Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford said in a statement the off-ramp opening early would deliver “much-needed relief to the rapidly growing community”.
It would open in the week beginning August 25, he said.
“Detailed planning is progressing well, and this is exactly the kind of practical progress our residents have been waiting for.”
Rutherford said the eastbound on-ramp would need to stay closed so the contractor could access the overbridge, but the off-ramp would alleviate the peak evening traffic flow.
The Pāpāmoa East Interchange development phasing plan. Image / Tauranga City Council
Further information would be shared in the week before opening, including via digital signage at the Tauranga Eastern Link entrance.
He thanked NZTA and the council for being committed to delivering the project efficiently.
“This early opening demonstrates exactly the kind of practical, results-focused approach our community needs,” Rutherford said.
Council senior project manager Nic Barnett said the entire Pāpāmoa East Interchange project was planned to be finished by mid-2026. The interchange cost $100 million and was 51% NZTA-funded.
He said the council pushed for the off-ramp to open ahead of schedule when it realised this would be possible due to the contractors’ progress and the “obvious benefits” to the community.
NZTA regional manager of system design Susan Collins said the agency was pleased for all Tauranga road users that the off-ramp was opening early.
Collins said the agency would carry out consultation on a second toll point on the Tauranga Eastern Link Toll Road in due course.
Bishop said in April that a new toll point was being considered for west of the new interchange, with consultation expected “in mid-2025″.
Tolling infrastructure would take about a year to install.
