Cameron Rd businesses struggle during the roadworks. Graeme Philp, owner of Make it Sew.
Tauranga’s chief commissioner admits “we didn’t get it right” and the council and community have since been left “scarred” by failings in the controversial Cameron Rd works.
In a Tauranga City Council meeting on Monday, commission chairwoman Anne Tolley expressed regret at what she described as “huge disruption and distress” to businesses and residents affected by the project.
The review into the $92 million Cameron Rd Stage One (CRS1) was released this week following a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request. This first stage, from Harington St to 17th Ave, was due to wrap up next month.
The review, carried out by Beca and Brockway Consulting, offered 13 recommendations. It was expected these would help in the planning of five large local transport projects collectively costing more than $1 billion - these were the Papamoa East Interchange, Tauriko West Enabling Works, 15th Ave and Turret Rd, connecting Mount Maunganui and Cameron Rd Stage Two.
The Cameron Rd project has long been touted as helping to future-proof the city, providing alternative transport options and beautifying the area as part of intensification plans. It has involved road and lane closures, torn-up footpaths and the removal of car parks.
The review stated: “While the project will achieve its stated objectives, it has experienced a level of community discontent and stakeholder frustration.”
“The budget should allow for high levels of consultation, mitigation and communication but shouldn’t be used to compensate for loss of business.”
Understanding the importance of minimising disruption was “critical”.
“One of the big aggravations was the lengthy time that barriers, road cones and traffic management were in place restricting access.
“This was particularly frustrating for affected stakeholders when no work appeared to be happening - sometimes for weeks or months at a time.”
Confusion over how people could escalate their concerns “resulted in problems festering and increasing in scale until such time that significant intervention was required”.
The review recommended more accountability through a dedicated director of major transport projects role and governance, such as a steering group. It was clear the project suffered from “poor commercial management”.
Tauranga City Council commission chairwoman Anne Tolley pictured at a public meeting at Mount Maunganui Golf Club. Photo / Alex Cairns
“In our view, the use of ground penetrating radar to locate services is insufficient on its own as a basis for initiating construction,” the review stated.
“This is perhaps the biggest learning from CRS1 where time did not allow for services discovery due to the programme milestones attached to the funding.”
In Monday’s meeting, Tolley said she agreed with the review’s criticism of work sites being left empty but blocked off, and its recommendation this should change.
“We don’t open up great areas of the road and then leave when we find the services weren’t in the place we thought they were going to be,” she said.
“We are better to cover them up ... rather than continue as we did down the road opening up more sites while leaving many, many still closed off with nothing happening.
“That was the biggest complaint that I had from people along that road.”
Roadworks on Cameron Rd outside Sand Bakery & Cafe. Photo / Alex Cairns
Tolley said many people were content to put up with some disruption “but when that disruption saw no action for, in some cases, months, then they couldn’t understand why they were made to suffer in that way”.
“Council, as a whole I think, we are all a bit scarred by Cameron Rd Stage One. It would be fair to say our community has also,” Tolley said.
“I think it’s right that we acknowledge that Cameron Rd Stage One, we didn’t get it right.
“By not getting it right, that has cost huge disruption and distress to many of our business owners along the corridor, to homeowners trying to get to and from their homes, and to people just trying to get down or through Cameron Rd to get to where they live or work.
“We’ve got to learn from that experience.”
The impacts of stage one on businesses and residents have been cited as the reason why the council has now delayed the start of Cameron Rd Stage Two from 2024 to 2025.
The five upcoming transportation projects would come under much more scrutiny as a result of the review, and it made “absolute logical sense” to create a governance structure for them, Tolley said.
Commissioner Stephen Selwood said that working parties were often so focused on their tasks “the oversight of how this is affecting the community can get lost”.
Kiri Gillespie is an assistant news director and a senior journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, specialising in local politics and city issues. She was a finalist for the Voyager Media Awards Regional Journalist of the Year in 2021.
