Mount Maunganui’s Bayfair flyover to open next week in a temporary configuration

Bayfair roundabout and flyover pictured in February 2023. Photo / Waka Kotahi

The new State Highway 2 Bayfair flyover will open next week.

The final bridge in the $262 million highway project six years and more than 1.3 million staff hours in the making is about to be used by motorists for the first time.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency said in a statement today the flyover would open in a temporary configuration overnight April 26 in time for Thursday morning traffic.

The flyover will take traffic over the Bayfair roundabout, however, the traffic switch and work leading up to it were weather dependent, Waka Kotahi said.

The flyover is one of the last significant pieces of infrastructure to be opened as part of the Baypark to Bayfair project, also known as Bay Link or B2B, which has built flyovers bypassing two busy roundabouts.

Work on the wider Bay Link - one of the Bay of Plenty’s largest roading projects, used by 38,000 people a day - is due to finish by the end of the year.

People heading for Girven Rd, Matapihi Rd and local businesses were asked to “stay low for local”. The new flyover should be used if travelling to and from State Highway 2 or the Tauranga Eastern Link, Pāpāmoa, State Highway 29A, Maungatapu, Welcome Bay, Mount Maunganui, the Port of Tauranga or the city centre.

The flyover will open under temporary traffic management and with a temporary speed limit of 50km/h, and people are asked to take extra care when travelling through the area while everyone gets used to the new layout, especially during morning and evening peak times.

Tauranga City Council acting director of transport Anna Somerville said the flyover would improve freight and commuter journey times during the morning and evening peak, “and importantly will enable better use of the existing local road network in the area for local trips”.

“Having the flyover operational this month means less traffic having to pass through the temporary traffic management at the existing roundabout, improving safety for all road users. [It] will also enable road users to become familiar with the new road layout, as construction continues on the remainder of the B2B project.”

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