“Critical” plans to reduce congestion at a major bottleneck in Mount Maunganui are underway, but one councillor is pushing for it to be higher priority.

Motorists will have a more efficient and reliable journey through Hewletts Road (SH2), Tōtara Street and Maunganui Road once the Connecting Mount Maunganui project is complete.

The roads link Mount Maunganui to Tauranga and are the main routes to New Zealand’s largest port.

It will be delivered in stages and include road and safety improvements, new connections between roads, the eventual four-laning of Totara St and the creation of a flyover from Totara St to the harbour bridge side of Hewletts Rd.

The first stage, at a cost of $5 million, will introduce high occupancy lanes on Hewletts Rd, allowing vehicles with three passengers or more to use the bus lanes.

Te Maire Street will also be connected to Newton Street which would reduce traffic on Hewletts Rd.

Councillor Glen Crowther said the project is the number one priority in Tauranga’s Transport System Plan (TSP) but there’s limited funding for it in the city’s 10-year plan.

Public transport improvements were number two, he said.

“To say it’s a critical project is if anything under egging, it’s our number one transport project.”

Councillor Glen Crowther said the project not being prioritised in the next 10 years made no sense at all. Photo / Alisha Evans.

The TSP is a 30-year plan made up of more than 80 transport projects for the Western Bay of Plenty region.

There was nothing more important than the Connecting Mount Maunganui project, but it wasn’t included in the council’s long-term plan, said Crowther.

“This project has been nixed from the plan [which] makes no sense at all.”

He wanted a long-term plan amendment which included the Connecting Mount Maunganui project.

“If we don’t go down that track, we are backing ourselves into a corner.”

All of the stages are subject to funding from the NZ Transport Agency, with a delivery date only set for stage one.

The council has allocated $29m in the 2024-34 long-term plan and $263m between 2035-44 to support the project.

Crowther also said that not grade separating the railway line, by setting it a different height from the road, was incredibly short-sighted. It had been part of the original plans.

Rail connections to the Port of Tauranga needed to be future proofed because the planned freight increases were “gobsmacking,” he said.

An 11-year-old girl died after being struck by a train on the Hewletts Rd rail crossing in July 2023. Photo / Alex Cairns

Last year, an 11-year-old girl died at the Maunganui Rd / Hewletts Rd rail crossing after she was struck by a train when biking home from school.

NZTA regional manager system design Jess Andrews said they looked at the key users of the road and did a lot of consultation to create the plans.

“Mount Maunganui and Hewletts Rd has the privilege of trying to serve everyone in a very small area which makes it incredibly complex from a transport planning perspective.”

Connecting some of the dead-end local roads would have an enormous difference on transport movements, she said.

Infrastructure general manager Nic Johansson said the planned projects in the TSP wouldn’t solve all of Tauranga’s transport problems.

“Transport planners keep telling us that we’re not going to build our way out of congestion.”

People also needed to change their behaviour to use other transport other than cars, he said.

A graphic of the preferred option for the Connecting Mount Maunganui project. Image / NZTA.

What’s planned

Stage one: occupancy lanes on Hewletts Rd and a connection from Te Maire Street to Newton Street at a cost of $5m.

Stage two and three: more local roads connected and bus stop upgrades at a cost of $118m.

Stage four: costed at $23m, would include a new shared path on Maunganui Road, and one between Tōtara St and Maunganui Rd including an overpass between Maunganui Road.

Stage five: add additional lanes to Totara Street and a flyover at the Tōtara Street, Hewletts Road intersection, costing $146m.

Tauranga City Council would pay 49 per cent of the local road projects while the state highway projects, including the flyover, would be fully funded by NZTA.

By the end of the year, the council will be presented with a business case for approval, which would then go to NZ Transport Agency for approval.

If funding is approved the council would progress the high occupancy lanes on Hewletts Road in 2025.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.