Safety improvements will be made to Mount Maunganui’s Links Avenue – but the controversial cul-de-sac that earnt $5m in fines will remain.
The residential street runs parallel to State Highway 2 and the eastern end of the street was turned into a cul-de-sac in response to residents’ concerns over high traffic volumes when children were travelling to and from school.
The closure between Solway Place and Concord Avenue is formed by two bus lanes, with access only for busses, motorbikes and emergency vehicles from 7am-10am and 2pm-4pm weekdays.
General traffic can use the lanes at all other times.
If they access it during the restricted hours they will be issued a $150 fine by Tauranga City Council. Initially it was a 24/7 ban but this was relaxed in December 2022.
Since the cul-de-sac was installed in March 2022, a tally of 34,299 fines have been issued totalling $5.14m.
Of these fines $2.55m have been paid in full and $1.28m is outstanding.
The council has waived 8779 fines equalling $1.32m, according to data provided to Local Democracy Reporting.
Safety improvements
Transitional safety improvements for the street, costing $450,000, will see the cycle lane protected from traffic with plastic bollards and street markings.
Improvements will be made outside Mount Maunganui Intermediate and two bus stops will also be removed from the street.
The Commission approved the changes at a council meeting on Monday.
Cycle plan implementation team leader Karen Hay says the next step is to re-evaluate the cul-de-sac following the opening of the SH2 Baypark to Bayfair Link.
The council put the cul-de-sac in place while Bay Link was under construction, saying they will asses it once the link was complete.
An artist’s impression of the Links Ave safety improvements. Photo: TCC.
People used Links Ave to avoid congestion on SH2 and before the closure there was up to 9000 vehicles a day using the street.
Karen says they needed to wait for traffic to normalise after it opened and will do traffic assessments until March.
Commission chair Anne Tolley says she’s worried council is testing the “nomalisation” too soon seeing because there are still traffic disruptions from Bay Link construction.
Karen responded by saying they will extend the traffic evaluations before making a recommendation to council about reopening.
Resident exemptions (sidehead)
The council is also looking at the possibility of resident exemptions, which will be unique for Tauranga, says Karen.
“Some [residents] had some real challenges in accessing local amenities, going to the doctor and their friends’ visits. We hear that loud and clear so we’re looking at what options exist.”
Commissioner Shadrach Rolleston wants reassurance that once the changes are implemented the community will continue to be consulted.
Karen says part of the transitional changes is to test and get feedback from the community. Construction of the improvements will take place from April 13-28 during the school holidays.
In April staff will report back to council about traffic volumes and resident exemptions.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
