KEY POINTS:
Construction of a $44 million Tauranga bypass designed to ease pressure on Cameron Rd and remove highway traffic from lower Pyes Pa Rd will start later this month.
The developer of The Lakes housing subdivision, Grasshopper Holdings, has been contracted to build the foundations of the bypass which will run from near the crematorium on Pyes Pa Rd to the Route K roundabout with State Highway 29.
This $22m earthworks stage of construction will create four-metre high embankments down the valley on top of which the 4.5km road will be built.
Project manager John Hannah said the fill will come from soil excavated as part of the development of The Lakes and IMF Westland's neighbouring Tauriko business estate.
The bypass is being funded 50/50 by Transit New Zealand and Tauranga City Council.
Mr Hannah said the first stage of the bypass, a 400m stretch of road from the Route K roundabout to The Lakes roundabout, has already been built by Grasshopper for $7m.
He said that using fill from the neighbouring developments has saved up to $10 million.
It will take about two years for the embankments to settle to a stage where Transit can build the road. The bypass was expected to open by June 2011.
Mr Hannah said the bypass would remove about 1700 vehicles a day from the increasingly residential Tauranga end of Pyes Pa Rd.
The bypass was being built in reasonably difficult terrain, with the valley becoming quite steep in its upper reaches closer to the crematorium. Work would also involve filling in a big hole across the valley.
As-well-as removing highway traffic from lower Pyes Pa Rd, the other main benefits of the bypass would be to reduce pressure on Cameron Rd and create a thoroughfare to funnel traffic directly into downtown Tauranga and to the harbour bridge via Route K and Takitimu Drive.
Construction of the road pavement from mid- 2010 would require a further funding application to Land Transport New Zealand.
Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby said the bypass was another step towards the completion of a transport system that not only provided good inter-regional links but would support the future growth of Western Bay of Plenty.
Mr Hannah said the embankments needed about two years to settle, allowing the soils to strengthen to support the weight of the road and its traffic. The $44m included land purchases.
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
