Preliminary work needed for the Pāpāmoa East interchange construction has started, Tauranga City Council has advised.
The new Pāpāmoa East Interchange, which will connect neighbourhoods in Pāpāmoa East to the Tauranga Eastern Link (TEL) / State Highway 2.
Tauranga commission chair, Anne Tolley says the interchange is much-needed and can’t come soon enough.
“It will provide people living in Pāpāmoa East with a welcome alternative travel route, no matter what their destination,” said Ms Tolley.
“The interchange also means we will have the road capacity to enable more housing and commercial development in the area, which is essential to support our growing city,” she says.
To allow work to proceed safely, traffic on the Tauranga Eastern Link Toll Road (State Highway 2) will be impacted for the next six months. Traffic will reduce to one lane in both directions until Monday, 3 October, after which only a westbound lane will be closed for the remainder of the work. The speed limit will reduce to 70kph through the site for the duration of this work.
Under normal circumstances, travel time is expected to increase by less than a minute as a result of this work. As this does not materially impact travel, tolls will continue to apply, Council said in a statement.
Development of the Rangiuru Business Park is also scheduled to start later this year, which means drivers on the TEL will likely encounter two worksites within in a short distance for a number of weeks.
