Editorial: Embrace growth in Bay

Tauranga is well positioned for growth but we need to keep pushing ahead. Photo / George Novak

It's great to see proof of our city growing - even faster than Auckland and Christchurch.

The Western Bay is a great place to live and the growth will only make it better.

I look forward to more shopping and entertainment options and businesses that are open longer. These are things that inevitably come with growth.

But it is important the city is ready.

We need to keep improving our infrastructure. And quickly.

Moving here I was impressed by how wide and free-flowing some of the major highways were.

Tauranga is well positioned for growth but we need to keep pushing ahead.

The Toi Moana Bay of Plenty Growth Study has highlighted the need for more trains in the Bay during the next few years.

The Port of Tauranga is dredging the harbour and channel to make it accessible to larger ships so more cargo will be making its way to and from our shores.

More trains, and larger trains, are the only way we will cope.

Our roads are already dominated by the huge number of trucks which make their way to and from the city every day. Heading north via State Highway 2 or travelling over the Kaimai Range there always seems to be a constant stream of trucks.

Even then it will have an impact on residents and traffic as trains compete to cross our busy streets.

We need to keep looking ahead.

The flyovers planned for Bayfair and Te Maunga will help but they are still years away. Even then they do not solve the problem completely, as you see with the Hewletts Rd flyover.

The Hairini link will help those coming from the other direction. The underpass on its own will only move the problem. Widening thse Turret Rd bridge and 15th Ave should allow traffic to flow more freely right through.

We don't want to find ourself in the same position as Auckland where road expansions have failed to keep up with demand. We need to keep preparing for continued growth over the next decades.

We've done well as a city so far. It's important we don't get this wrong. Many of the major projects we need are in the pipeline. We need to push them through as quickly as possible.