Frustration at traffic delays within Tauranga have spilled over into Waikato region as lines of traffic grow ever longer at the vital Pairere SH29-SH1 intersection, with little indication things will improve in the short term.
Brett Marsh owns Brett Marsh Transport with wife Leonie and says transport operators in Waikato-Bay of Plenty have grown increasingly frustrated in the past year over the growing delays now experienced at the Pairere-SH1 intersection.
“It has definitely got worse since the expressway was completed through the Waikato.
“More drivers are opting to go via Cambridge to Auckland, rather than through Katikati.”
He welcomed Waka Kotahi’s plans for a roundabout at the intersection, but knew it would be some time before that is completed.
“You even have people opting to go through Morrinsville now, rather than deal with the intersection, and it is only 10 minute’s slower that way, at least you are moving.”
It is causing chaos. We cannot make the times booked at the port now, and you will be charged a late fee by Port of Tauranga, on top of your booking fee. Meantime we are being told by NZTA to wind our drivers’ hours driving per day down, yet trucks are sitting longer in traffic. The entire region is slowly grinding to a halt. – Brett Marsh
He said it was one of several pinch points for traffic that Bay of Plenty-Waikato seemed peppered with.
Others included coming east into Tauranga, with traffic jams snarling up into Tauriko that often extended as far back as Ruahihi at the foot of the Kaimai ranges.
His drivers could also expect to take an hour at times to travel the mere 11km from Te Puna to Tauriko, such were the delays on that corridor now. “And there is the eastern corridor which is still not completed.”
Marsh said cumulatively the delays are causing major productivity problems for companies like his, and for the region as a whole given its role serving the country’s largest port.
“It is causing chaos. We cannot make the times booked at the port now, and you will be charged a late fee by Port of Tauranga, on top of your booking fee.
“Meantime we are being told by NZTA to wind our drivers’ hours driving per day down, yet trucks are sitting longer in traffic. The entire region is slowly grinding to a halt.”
A Waka Kotahi spokesperson confirmed the new roundabout at the intersection was scheduled for commencement this October, with a two-year completion time.
It was designed to allow connection with a potential future expressway between Cambridge and Piarere.
The original Waikato Expressway plan had was intended to extend to the intersection but was shelved by Labour in 2018, and no time has been set for this to re-commence.
The current intersection will continue to be used as the roundabout is being built on the Hamilton side of the current intersection, with complete new approaches from all routes feeding into it.
Waka Kotahi traffic data shows the greatest increase in traffic volume has come from a 11% growth between 2021 and 2022 in traffic travelling north up SH1 past the intersection.
Traffic travelling east on SH29 towards Tauranga has increased 6%, while westbound traffic on SH29 actually recorded a decline of 1%.
Average daily traffic counts through the entire intersection are up 5.7% in the same
period.
One fatal accident has been recorded in the past eight years to late May this year killing two people, while three serious injury accidents have occurred over the same time, seriously injuring seven people.
Transport organisation Ia Ara Aotearoa acting CEO Dom Kalasih said the intersection was one of several members had raised as being of concern.
“The expressway (completion) has definitely increased the traffic going through that intersection. I understand a roundabout has been in the plan for quite a while, it is good to know it is coming.”
Last year Tauranga City commissioner Stephen Sellwood said Waka Kotahi’s failure to deliver on transport infrastructure was causing serious frustration for the commission as it attempted to develop more land.
Tauriko West, identified for 4000 homes, was dependent upon uncertain long-term transport plans, he said.
Transport options were also based on decade-old traffic density figures.
