The final bridge in a $262 million highway project six years and more than 1.3 million staff hours in the making is about to be used by motorists for the first time.

The Bayfair flyover on State Highway 2 in Mount Maunganui is expected to open this month, with work on the wider Bay Link - one of the Bay of Plenty’s largest roading projects, used by 38,000 people a day - to finish by the end of the year.

Resident and business organisations are pleased to see the project reach this stage “at last”, but did not expect it to be a “silver bullet” for congestion on the fast-growing city’s roading network.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency announced yesterday the last of three Bay Link bridges was scheduled to open this month. The agency told the Bay of Plenty Times it expected to confirm a date later this week.

In a media statement, the agency said the Bayfair flyover will open in a temporary configuration and take traffic over the Bayfair roundabout, separating local and state highway traffic. The traffic switch and work leading up to it were weather-dependent.

The flyover is one of the last significant pieces of infrastructure to be opened as part of the Baypark to Bayfair project, also known as Bay Link or B2B, which has built flyovers bypassing two busy roundabouts.

In late 2014, the transport agency board approved $120m for the project. Construction started in 2017 and was then expected to be completed in late 2020.

However, Waka Kotahi said enhancements to pedestrian and cycling modes and “unforeseen” ground conditions led to scope, cost and time impacts, and in 2021, it pushed the completion date out to late 2023, and the total project cost to $262m.

Waka Kotahi Bay of Plenty regional manager of maintenance and operations, Rob Campbell, said in yesterday’s statement he was looking forward to the flyover opening.

“This long-awaited, last major piece of infrastructure as part of the Bay Link project is a huge milestone for everyone.”

Campbell said while a lot of “carefully sequenced work” needed to happen before its opening date, people should plan their journies ahead of the upcoming switch.

“Opening the flyover to traffic means significant changes for everyone and will require drivers to make an early selection of the route they will take, depending on their destination.”

Traffic at Baypark to Bayfair project roadworks last week. Photo / Alex Cairns

People heading for Girven Rd, Matapihi Rd and local businesses were asked to “stay low for local”. The new flyover should be used if travelling to and from State Highway 2 or the Tauranga Eastern Link, Pāpāmoa, State Highway 29A, Maungatapu, Welcome Bay, Mount Maunganui, the Port of Tauranga or the city centre.

“The flyover is opening under temporary traffic management, and people are asked to take extra care when travelling through the area while everyone gets used to the new layout, especially during morning and evening peak times,” Campbell said.

The flyover will open with a temporary speed limit of 50km/h and the roundabout will keep its temporary speed limit of 30km/h.

Campbell said the flyover was expected to reduce traffic volumes around the Bayfair roundabout, so the final phase of road reconstruction works at the roundabout can begin.

This involved reconstructing the ground-level roads leading into and away from the Bayfair roundabout to bring them up to standard. This will be completed in stages, each requiring new, temporary traffic layouts.

Work was continuing at both ends of the project, including building a bigger, signalised Bayfair roundabout, the remaining SH29A/SH2 Te Maunga interchange off-ramp, Truman Lane, walking and cycling connections, as well as final works on the Bayfair underpass.

Existing roads would be replaced to support heavier and more vehicles. The final layer of road surface would be applied once most of the works were done, Campbell said.

Bayfair Shopping Centre manager Steve Ellingford said it was great to see this milestone reached after years of construction.

“It is certainly a major milestone,” he said.

“It will separate the community traffic from the traffic that is heading south and to the port, easing up congestion at break periods on the Girven - Maunganui Rd roundabout.”

Bayfair Shopping Centre manager Steve Ellingford. Photo / NZME

Mount Maunganui Ratepayers, Residents and Retailers Association president Michael O’Neill said the flyover opening would relieve a lot of congestion around Bayfair Shopping Centre and, hopefully, Oceanbeach Rd.

He believed, however, with the increasing population and traffic in Mount Maunganui and Pāpāmoa, the flyover may hit its capacity.

“It is not the silver bullet to relieving Tauranga’s traffic problems.”

The SH2 underpass at Bayfair, which was not included in the initial Bay Link plan and was added after extensive community backlash and consultation, opened in April 2022.

Pāpāmoa Residents and Ratepayers Association chairman Philip Brown led the fight for it, through the Bay Underpass Alliance.

Responding to the flyover milestone, he said: “At last.”

He said it had taken a long time, and congratulated the agency for getting to this point in the project.

“It should ease the traffic leaving the Hewletts Rd area going towards Te Puke.”

But he said he had reservations as to whether it would help anyone driving into the Mount in the mornings, with only one lane available for motorists to use when crossing into the left lane.

“The crossing of lanes concerns me. But I am hoping to be proven wrong.”

Tauranga City Council was approached for comment about the impact the flyover would have on the city’s roading network.

Temporary road and lane closures

• Maunganui Rd, at ground level, northbound will be reduced to a single lane from opposite Exeter St, through the Bayfair roundabout to opposite Concord Avenue.
• Maunganui Rd, at ground level, southbound will be reduced to a single lane from Concord Avenue to Bayfair roundabout.
• There will be one lane only around the Bayfair roundabout.
• As work continues at ground level at the project’s Baypark end, all road users using the Bayfair flyover to connect with SH2 Tauranga Eastern Link or SH29A will use the SH2/SH29A Te Maunga interchange.
• The Truman Lane layout remains in place until late autumn.

Source: Waka Kotahi Transport Agency

Bay Link fun facts

• More than 79,000 square metres of roads are being rebuilt – that’s 10 standard rugby fields.
• Three new bridges.
• 24 beams, each 28 metres long and up to 54 tonnes, form the four-span flyover at the Bayfair roundabout.
• 1.3 million staff hours (as of the end of March).
• More than 120,000 plants to be planted.

Source: Waka Kotahi Transport Agency