Signals for Brookfield roundabout a NZ first

By JOHN COUSINS
Tauranga is to have New Zealand's first roundabout controlled by traffic lights in a bid to cure one of the city's worst suburban traffic hot spots.
The $900,000 project to rebuild Brookfield roundabout will see Otumoetai Rd down from Waihi Rd added to the mix and traffic lights installed to balance out traffic flows - Otumoetai Rd currently meets Bellevue Rd just short of the existing roundabout.
Council transportation projects manager Robert Holford said installing traffic lights had been endorsed by world-renowned English roading engineer Barbara Chard who visited Tauranga last year.
The project will trigger a chain of events, climaxing in the long-awaited opening of the Millers Rd link to Bethlehem about Christmas next year.
If there were no holdups in the design and safety audit process, construction of the roundabout could start in February and finish by next May. But if the audit required the roundabout to be redesigned, construction might not start until April.
Mr Holford said the final design would go on display in the Brookfield New World supermarket's foyer.
Rebuilding the roundabout and widening Millers Rd past the primary school needed to happen before the council completed the link to give motorists an alternative access to Bethlehem - easing congestion on State Highway 2. Linking Millers Rd into Bethlehem's Carmichael Rd also relied on joining up Carmichael Rd between the Mayfield and St Michael's subdivisions.
Widening Millers Rd and linking up Carmichael Rd at the junction of Mayfield and St Michael's were expected to finish by next May.
The two jobs were being bundled into one contract, so it would be up to the winning tenderer to decide which was done first.
Designing the link between Brookfield and Bethlehem would be completed by next June, with construction timed to start in October next year in time for a Christmas finish.
Mr Holford said installing traffic lights on Brookfield roundabout would give all motorists an even opportunity, whereas at the moment traffic flows were very unbalanced, resulting in long queues down some roads - particularly in the afternoon peak.
The only entry to the roundabout not to have traffic lights would be Millers Rd.
Mr Holford said the only other roundabout in the country with signals was the temporary arrangement at Auckland's Mt Albert motorway extensions.
Carmichael Rd's intersection with State Highway 2 north of Bethlehem was planned to close in order to dissuade people from using the new route from Brookfield as a rat run.
Instead, traffic could swing into a subdivision currently under construction, leading to a roundabout planned to be built at the northern end of Bethlehem's shops.
Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby told this week's meeting of the council's transportation taskforce that it would be interesting to see how many people used the new link to Bethlehem.