State Highway 29 tree felling causes delays through Kaimai Range

Scheduled tree felling on State Highway 29 through the Kaimai Range caused motorists to experience about an hour of traffic delays yesterday.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency Bay of Plenty system manager Roger Brady said the delays on SH29 were the result of lane closures for "crucial tree felling work".

"There was a large pine tree that posed a risk to vehicles using the highway that needed to be removed.

"There were critical powerlines underneath the tree so it was a significant job, involving a large crane.

"We needed to close multiple lanes and use stop/go traffic management in order to ensure we could carry out the work efficiently and safely."

Brady said upcoming maintenance was signalled on VMS (Variable Message Signs) on the highway three days ahead of the scheduled tree felling.

"Unfortunately the work was not featured on our journey planner or in our traffic bulletin.

"We appreciate the frustration the delays caused motorists on the last day of the school holidays and we apologise for not communicating better about this important work."

Brady said contractors were able to complete the job three hours ahead of schedule and traffic was flowing in both directions by 3pm yesterday.

Kaimai resident Glenise Moore said the tree felling was long-overdue.

"The trees were probably a bit of a hazard," she said.

"You'll always get people complaining about traffic on SH29 but you won't hear any complaints from this resident."

Moore said the tree felling process took "a few hours" and she had seen a "bulletin board" on SH29 notifying drivers and residents of the works.

Motorists were spending about an hour in traffic on State Highway 29 on Sunday due to tree felling.

"That's just the way it is. If the trees needed to go they needed to go."

Tauranga resident Chloe Winton and her boyfriend were heading home from Auckland when they encountered backed-up traffic on SH29.

"We were in there for about an hour," Winton said.

According to Winton, a drive-through on the same section of the road usually takes about 20 minutes.

"We didn't see any tree-felling. We thought the traffic was just cluttering up."

A worker at the Kaimai Cafe, who did not wish to be named, said the traffic was backed up past the cafe entrance for more than an hour.

"If you were coming from Tauranga you would've been fine but if you were coming from the Kaimai side you wouldn't have been able to get to the cafe."