Residents react to major changes on one of Tauranga's most congested roads

Avenues Residents Association spokesman Phil Green said the changes to 15th Ave had been long overdue. Photo / George Novak

Major changes to improve traffic flow on one of the city's most congested roads have been a long time coming, residents say.

However, business owners on 15th Ave fear that some of the changes will have a huge impact on their day-to-day work.

From July 22, construction will start to add traffic lights at the 15th Ave intersection with Burrows St, a new bus and T3 lane between Mayfair and Scantlebury streets and an exit from Grace Rd on to 15th Ave.

The Turret Rd slip road will be closed and a new shared walkway/cycleway linking to Mayfair St will be added as well as an extra lane between Fraser and Mayfair streets.

Owner of Rad Car Hire on 15th Ave, Darrell Mackie, said the widening of the road was going to be disruptive for businesses at the bottom of 15th Ave near Turret Rd.

"It is going to disrupt everyone as far as space goes, which is going to be quite dramatic," he said. "I will be down to two carparks."

However, Mackie said traffic was backed up by 4.30pm most weekdays and the lights at Burrows St would help traffic to flow better.

Owner of Rad Car Hire on 15th Ave, Darrell Mackie. Photo / George Novak

Bay Batteries owner Richard Wagner said he too would lose "quite a bit of space".

"It is going to be a huge impact," he said. "It is going to be dangerous for people driving in here and having to turn around, especially motor homes."

Avenues Residents Association spokesman Phil Green said the changes had been long overdue.

"It has been a long time coming. But it is good to see progress finally," he said.

Green said 15th Ave was a narrow bottleneck for a large amount of commuter traffic and needed to be opened up.

"No one foresaw the wider suburbs were going to grow so much," he said.

"There has never been anything aligned to come from Welcome Bay interchange into 15th Ave."

The changes were a good start but there was going to be some disruption and a few holdups, Green said. "But it is short term pain for hopefully long-term gain."

"It will take time but I think at least we will see a bit of change in the traffic flows. But people have to be patient," he said.

Major changes to 15th Ave have been announced to help improve traffic flow. Photo / George Novak

Welcome Bay Community Centre manager Anna Larsen said some commuters said the changes were "too little too late".

The changes were not going to satisfy everyone, but on the whole they were "a huge relief", Larsen said.

"I think it is going to be really good for those of us leaving the city to get out to Welcome Bay," she said.

"It is going to shift the chokepoint from Turret Rd back up to the traffic lights."

Larsen said the problem was people were using the Turret Rd slip lane as a shortcut to avoid going through the traffic and stopping the traffic flow.

"It doesn't stop the number of cars using the road but it does change how it will flow going through that point."

Tauranga Boys' College principal Robert Mangan said he had noticed an increase in traffic at the start and end of the school day and welcomed any changes to improve traffic flow on 15th Ave.

Councillor Bill Grainger said he doubted the changes would improve traffic flow.

"One of my major concerns with the design is the traffic lights at Burrows St," he said.

"Stopping traffic is one problem and running traffic through from two lanes is another problem."

Hairini resident Bruce Cronin said the changes still did not address traffic congestion on the Hairini Bridge.

"That is the absolute bottleneck," he said. "The bridge is the elephant in the room."

Pāpāmoa resident Mark Adamson, who travels into town for work, said traffic lights at Burrows St would just stop traffic flow.

Tauranga bus-user Jeremy Booking said a bus lane heading into town up 15th Ave was "pointless". "It doesn't get congested and will only create one additional merger point."

Tauranga City Council acting manager of transportation Phil Consedine said 15th Ave was one of Tauranga's top five most congested roads.

Consedine said 15th Ave was the main link between the city and Welcome Bay, Maungatapu, Hairini and Ōhauiti, with side roads causing the biggest disruption to travel times.

The NZ Transport Agency has not provided funding for construction of stage 1 works but the Tauranga City Council will fund the project through a rates-funded loan.

The road at 15th Ave will stay open during the works, which start on July 22 and are expected to be completed early next year.