Kaimai Range road work on hold for rugby fans

Traffic travels through the Kaimai Ranges. Photo / APN

Contractors working on State Highway 29 over the Kaimai Range will stop work early and reopen the road for Bay rugby fans heading to Hamilton to watch the All Blacks play Ireland.

Part of the highway will be closed this weekend so contractors can remove overhanging trees and large rocks from the Ruahihi Bluffs slope, about 17km west of Tauranga near the Ruahihi Power Station.

The Kaimai Range will be closed on Saturday from 7.30am-3pm and on Sunday from 7.30-5pm. The road will close again periodically for one hour at a time during the following Monday to Wednesday, June 25-27, at 10am, midday and 2pm.

Alternative routes include State Highway 2 north towards Katikati, State Highway 36 south towards Ngongataha, and a diversion route will be in place on the Tauranga side of State Highway 29 along Poripori Rd, Crawford Rd and Wairoa Rd.

The Saturday closure was initially planned to last until 5pm, meaning Bay All Blacks fans would have been required to find another route to the match.

But a New Zealand Transport Agency spokesperson announced yesterday that contractors would suspend their operations at 3pm so most fans could still use State Highway 29.

This means people travelling to the game from Tauranga before 3pm will face disruptions, but for those leaving after 3pm and for the return leg home the route should be clear.

Sam Ager, an All Blacks fan heading from Welcome Bay for the test match in Hamilton, said she had planned to head over earlier in the day, but would now rethink the plan.

"I'm going over with my husband and our 14-year-old daughter and our other daughter is at university in Hamilton so we'll pick her up on the way. As soon as the tickets came on sale we got them straight away.

"I'm glad I saw it [the route changes] so at least then we can decide what we want to do. We were planning to head over earlier but we'll have to decide what we're doing now," she said.

NZTA Bay of Plenty state highways manager Brett Gliddon said the road closure was necessary.

"These trees and rocks are a potential risk to the safety of people using the highway, so it's important that we take proactive steps to remove them now.

"We are very aware that SH29 is a high-use highway ... That's why we've timed the major part of the works to take place over the weekend, when heavy freight traffic volumes are lower than levels during the week.

"The follow-up work from Monday to Wednesday has also been planned to minimise disruption to school traffic, by keeping the one-hour closure periods away from the beginning and end of the school day," he said.

An NZTA spokesperson added that the agency knew the road closure could interfere with fans' travel plans to Hamilton, but said the decision was a calculated one.

"It was either now or school holidays [which start next weekend], and school holidays is much harder to deal with than just one day of an All Blacks test," she said.

Senior Sergeant Ian Campion, the officer in charge of road policing in the Western Bay, said motorists should take care on the alternate routes and allow an extra 30 minutes for their trips.

"The diversion route [through Wairoa Rd to SH29] is a rural road which is narrow at times and will need special care. Allow an extra half-hour - it's about making sure you plan your trip with the diversions in the back of your mind," he said.