Waka Kotahi has no plans for a bypass in Katikati,but says the Waikato Expressway will help relieve traffic. Photo / Talia Parker
Katikati locals have been calling for a bypass for almost a century.
The Government now has a plan to alleviate congestion, but the community isn't convinced.
Waka Kotahi (New Zealand Transport Agency) said the new Waikato Expressway - not a much-anticipated Katikati bypass - would alleviate the town's traffic problem.
The expressway was estimated to be completed in June 2022.
A Waka Kotahi spokesperson said the bypass didn't meet requirements for funding under their 10-year plan because the expressway would make enough of a difference.
"When considered against national priorities and the forecast impact of the Waikato Expressway on movements between Auckland and Tauranga, the bypass doesn't meet the threshold required to be eligible for funding."
They said the expressway would be used as the preferred route between Auckland and Tauranga when it was finished.
When asked for these forecasts, Waka Kotahi said data from 2016/2017 showed 2000 vehicles would be diverted from State Highway 2 by the expressway. More recent data could not be provided.
The agency's 2020 data showed an average of 11,569 vehicles travelling through Katikati every day - 9 per cent of these (1040) were heavy vehicles.
The data also showed a 5 per cent reduction in the estimated journey time for motorists using SH2 during the 2020 holidays by redirecting them to SH27 and SH29.
Identical twins Garry and Kevin Taylor, co-founders of Taylor Brothers Transport Limited, have lived in Katikati for 80 years and said the town "desperately needs" a bypass.
Kevin Taylor said it had been "nigh on a hundred years" of hoping for one.
"For an area that produces so much, and brings so much to the economy, why are we being ignored?" Garry said.
Retired engineer Roger Stiles had been campaigning for a bypass for 20 years.
"It's [the traffic] just diabolical," he said.
He thought the expressway would "have minimal effect" on congestion in Katikati because most of the traffic wasn't coming from or going to Auckland.
"It's local traffic - not Auckland traffic - that is our problem."
He also said he'd heard from truck drivers who had avoided driving over the Kaimai Range because the route used more diesel, and the fumes from the traffic caused problems in Katikati.
"You go through and wipe your fingers on the windows there [on the main street] and see what colour they are."
A local man, who did not want to be named, said there were talks of a Katikati bypass when he moved to the town 13 years ago.
"I don't think I'll live to see it happen, even if I live to be 100."
He said Katikati would be "a real country town" without all the congestion, which he said also caused "non-stop" noise.
He said the idea the expressway would help was "a load of rubbish".
One couple thought a bypass would hurt more than help and the expressway would alleviate congestion.
"Once they get rid of it [the traffic], this will be a ghost town."
Another local said traffic was often congested in the area.
"Sometimes if you're going around 5pm, coming from Tauranga, it [the journey time] doubles," he said.
"Heaps of cars are waiting."
He was concerned potential solutions could worsen congestion in the meantime.
"If they're going to make any bypass around here, it will take a lot of time."
Raman Kaur, whose family owns the Katikati Mini-Mart, said the traffic made it hard to pick up her son and it could take her 10 minutes to get across the main road.
"Right now, it's a narrow road, just two lanes. It's [the traffic] too much."
An Aucklander on holiday in Katikati, who did not want to be named, hadn't had any problems with the traffic.
"I know it [congestion] happens during the peak times," he said. "Maybe we've been lucky."
Western Bay of Plenty mayor Garry Webber said he didn't think enough vehicles would use the expressway instead of Katikati to make a difference.
"I doubt it's going to help very much at all, but I accept that Waka Kotahi believes it's the solution.
"It's like all towns on SH1 - they [Katikati] would like a bypass. It's who's going to pay for it that is the problem.
"There is just not enough money in New Zealand to fund everyone's desires."
Councillor James Denyer said the expressway wouldn't address the logging trucks coming from the Coromandel to the Port of Tauranga, and internal Western Bay traffic.
"Diversion via the Waikato Expressway cannot solve that problem.
"I'm still really keen for the bypass to go ahead."
Councillor Anne Henry said the traffic was causing soot and noise pollution for residents, it had no benefits for Katikati and a bypass was long overdue.
"If you're in a flow of traffic, you don't stop in the town."
Councillor Allan Sole said fixing Katikati's congestion with the expressway was "like having a headache and putting a sticking plaster on your knee".
"It's not gonna solve the problem."
He thought the expressway could relieve some of the pressure.
Katikati Community Board member John Clements said the expressway would struggle to alleviate congestion in Katikati because there would still be a state highway down the middle of the town.
"If anything happens on SH29, traffic is going to have to go somewhere else."
He said the congestion made it impossible for the community board to create an effective town plan.
"It's not a town that functions with a state highway down the middle."
Waka Kotahi said the impact of the expressway on Katikati would not be known until it was completed.
KATIKATI BYPASS TIMELINE
1923: Katikati Community begins calling for a bypass.
1990: Transit New Zealand calls for submissions from the public about options for the bypass – says the bypass is "required to solve congestion problems and poor highway alignment".
2006: Squeaky Wheels Bypass Action Group protests the lack of a bypass on Katikati's main street.
2007: Transit New Zealand earmarks $630,000 for designing the bypass.
2009: Funding for the bypass is slashed in half. The project is delayed from 2010 until 2018.
2017: A petition for the bypass gains over 3000 signatures. Katikati bypass is approved by NZTA.
2018: NZTA says the bypass is on the backburner.
2019: Waka Kotahi says it will not consider a bypass for Katikati until 2028.
2020: WBOP council applies for funding for 15 projects, including the bypass. The other 14 are sent for further approval but the bypass is rejected.
2021: WBOP mayor Garry Webber makes a submission to Waka Kotahi emphasising the need for a bypass for Katikati.
Peter was trapped under a tractor for hours on his Mangakino farm.