Links Ave road closure in Mount Maunganui leads to $5m in fines

Unapproved vehicles using the closed end of Links Ave during peak times are fined $150. Photo / John Borren, SunLive

Safety improvements will be made to Mount Maunganui’s Links Ave but the controversial cul-de-sac that brought in $5 million worth of fines will remain.

The residential street runs parallel to State Highway 2 and the eastern end was turned into a cul-de-sac in response to residents’ concerns over high traffic volumes when children travelled to and from school.

The closure between Solway Place and Concord Ave is formed by two bus lanes, with access only for busses, motorbikes and emergency vehicles from 7am-10am and 2pm-4pm weekdays.

General traffic can use the lanes at all other times. If they access it during the restricted hours they will be issued with a $150 fine by Tauranga City Council.

Initially, it was a 24/7 ban but this was relaxed in December 2022.

An artist’s impression of the Links Ave safety improvements. Graphic / TCC

Since the cul-de-sac was created in March 2022, 34,299 fines have been issued totalling $5.14m.

Of those fines, $2.55m has been paid in full and $1.28m was outstanding.

The council had waived 8779 fines equalling $1.32m, according to data provided to Local Democracy Reporting.

Transitional safety improvements for the street, costing $450,000, will see the cycle lane separated from traffic by plastic bollards and street markings.

Improvements would be made outside Mount Maunganui Intermediate and two bus stops would also be removed from the street.

The council’s commission approved the changes at a meeting on Monday.

Cycle-plan implementation team leader Karen Hay said the next step was to reevaluate the cul-de-sac after the opening of the State Highway 2 Baypark to Bayfair Link.

The council put the cul-de-sac in place while the Bay Link was under construction and said it would assess it once the link was complete.

People used Links Ave to avoid congestion on SH2 and before the closure up to 9000 vehicles a day used the street.

Hay said the cycle-plan implementation team needed to wait for traffic to normalise after it opened and would do traffic assessments until March.

Tauranga City Council commission chairwoman Anne Tolley. Photo / Alex Cairns

Commission chairwoman Anne Tolley said she was worried the council was testing the “normalisation” too soon because there were still traffic disruptions from Bay Link construction.

Hay said the cycle-plan implementation team would extend the traffic evaluations before making a recommendation to the council about the reopening.

The council was also looking at the possibility of resident exemptions, which would be unique for Tauranga, she said.

“Some [residents] had some real challenges in accessing local amenities, going to the doctor and their friends’ visits. We hear that loud and clear so we’re looking at what options exist.”

Commissioner Shadrach Rolleston wanted reassurance that once the changes were implemented, the consultation with the community would continue.

Tauranga City Council commissioner Shadrach Rolleston. Photo / Alex Cairns

Hay said part of the transitional changes was to test and get feedback from the community.

Links Ave was also a bus corridor, with 200 buses per day servicing the street and wider area.

The buses combined with heavy traffic prompted residents to approach the council in 2018 with their concerns for children’s safety.

Tolley said it “beggars belief” Links Ave was determined as a bus route and cycle route without community consultation and the development of safety measures occurring first.

She had concerns about how many buses would use the street as public transport increased and the impact on children going to and from the three schools in the area.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council, which runs the buses, and Tauranga City needed to think about the location of the routes, she said.

“The biggest complaint from residents, that we heard constantly, was that the buses used to go down the state highway. That’s where they should be in that sort of numbers,” Tolley said.

Construction of the improvements will take place from April 13 to 28 during the school holidays.

In April staff would report back to the council about traffic volumes and resident exemptions.

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