Welcome Bay residents heading into town would no longer be able to go straight ahead at the roundabout but be forced into a dog leg down Ohauiti Rd, around Palmers and back up to the intersection.
Ohauiti Rd resident Phillip Rumbal has launched a campaign to try to defeat the plan and has so far gathered 140 signatures from his neighbourhood.
He faces the prospect of the road being widened and lowered outside his home, potentially putting thousands of trucks and cars every day within 6m of his lounge.
He is convinced the agency would not be looking at spending an estimated $9 million on a new layout if it was not at the expense of the proposed direct link between Welcome Bay Rd and the bridge causeway.
Mr Rumbal's petition refers to Prime Minister John Key's pre-election promise in 2008 that a National Government would pump $100 million into a project to four-lane Tauranga's central corridor - now called the Hairini Link project. "We want Mr Key to stick to his promise," Mr Rumbal said.
He says the big benefit of the proposed new layout would be to allow more rush hour stacking lanes for highway traffic coming from Pyes Pa and wanting to turn right into Welcome Bay Rd. Queues currently stretched all the way back to Sanctuary Point Holiday Park. However he insisted it would only be a "sticking plaster for a major wound".
The agency's projects director Andrew Scott said the proposed new roading layout was one of the options being looked at for stage four of the project - the separation of across-town local traffic from highway traffic at Hairini. He said it would be much cheaper if they could come up with a solution at Hairini that did not involve grade separating roads, such as an underpass.
They had looked at 15 different options, discarded some, with the agency on track to making an announcement early next month on the preferred option.
He said it could replace or defer the need for the underpass for a period of time. "We need to find the best solution overall. It is one of many options, but it has a number of challenges and it may not be feasible."
They were also looking out to when the Tauriko industrial area was fully developed and a lot of workers commuted to Welcome Bay.
"There have been a lot of rumours and uncertainties about the project going back a decade. We want to make sure we make the right decision and provide certainty because what ever option is chosen will affect a number of residents.
Tauranga MP Simon Bridges said the New Zealand Transport Agency was entitled to look at various options but the fact of the matter was the Government had made a commitment at the last election and would see it through.
"The election pledge still stands."
He did not want to comment on the whether the underpass for Welcome Bay would happen or not, saying it would all become clear next month.
Palmers Gardenworld owner Marcel Bogers declined to comment until the announcement next month because anything before that was conjecture.
