Council gets moving on changes to 15th Ave/Fraser St intersection

Tauranga City Council announced big changes to help with traffic flow on 15th Ave. Photo / George Novak

Work to upgrade the 15th Ave intersection will begin next month after the project was paused last month.

The first stage of the 15th Ave upgrade project will start on Monday, beginning with work to free up capacity at the 15th Ave/Fraser St intersection.

Tauranga City Council said the changes would aim to make the intersection operate safely and efficiently, particularly during the afternoon peak travel time.

Together with changes to restrict traffic from side roads this would bring some improvement to journey times towards the Hairini causeway, the council said.

Work was expected to be completed by mid-2020. The road would stay open for the duration of the project, however, delays were expected.

Council transportation manager Martin Parkes said the council was looking forward to getting this project under way.

The council would be working to minimise any issues for road users and people living and working in this area, Parkes said.

To ensure that the affected community was kept up to date, the council would issue regular e-newsletters and media releases.

Western Bay of Plenty road policing, Senior Sergeant Craig Rawlinson said it was tempting to have a good look at what was happening with the works, however, anything that took a driver's attention away from the road could be a potential hazard.

"Therefore we ask drivers to actively contribute to the prevention of further delays by keeping their eyes on the road and avoiding rubbernecking, which could potentially slow down the traffic flow."

The council paused the project last month, but voted unanimously on August 6 to unpause it after hearing assurances from transport modelling experts it would not make congestion worse.

Elected members heard there might be a modest time saving on average for evening commuters - less than a minute - but that the project would mainly make journey times less variable.

Principal transport planner Bruce Robinson said at the time there would be little impact on journey times without releasing the Hairini Bridge bottleneck.

Stage 1 includes:

• Widening the road with two continuous southbound lanes from Fraser St, merging to one lane after Burrows St to give the 15th Ave/Fraser St intersection a better chance to clear in the afternoons.

• Installing traffic lights at the Burrows St intersection to manage the traffic entering 15th Ave and maintain a safe crossing point for people on foot and on bikes.

• Closing the exit from Grace Rd on to 15th Ave and closing the Turret Rd slip lane to control traffic from these side streets.

• Installing a new shared path from Alexander St to Mayfair St via the new signalised crossing at Burrows St to improve connections for pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users.

• Developing a new northwest-bound bus lane between Mayfair St and Scantlebury St to improve bus service reliability. While this lane is relatively short, it is part of possible future plans to improve the wider bus network.

The first couple of weeks of the project mainly revolve around setting the site up and beginning preliminary works.

Earlier information about the project funding and linkage to the Urban Form and Transport Initiative (UFTI) can be found on the web page: www.tauranga.govt.nz/15th-avenue-corridor-improvements. This web page also contains a link to subscribe to a regular e-newsletter with updates about the 15th Avenue Stage 1 works.